


Escape the Night: My Version of Season 3

by ETNMystic



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Archery, Choking, Crows, Dark Comedy, Dark Prince, Death, Demonic Possession, Drowning, Existential Crises, Fire, Fruit Collector, Gen, Hanging, Head Guard, Huntress - Freeform, I Ship It, In Hiding, Labyrinth - Freeform, Lady Scarecrow, Lots of Murder, Medallions, Medium - Freeform, Murder, Princess - Freeform, Prisoner of War, Psychological Trauma, Renaissance Era, Scarecrow King, Scarecrow King's Daughter, Sir Scarecrow, Sleeping draught, Stabbing, Teamwork, Twerking, Youtube red, actually your fave will most likely die, also I can't go one story without making at least one Harry Potter reference, also at least one character in the fanfic is hella bi, also scarecrow princess might be a lesbian, also someone gets set on fire in the beginning, and if they don't die they'll be scarred for life, and oh hey i'm adding more you tubers because i feel like i need more comedy, and this time it's not matt haag's fault, blood sacrifice, corn murder, criminal, curse, death challenges, do I mean bisexual or biromantic?, have fun trying to figure out which, i'm also trash but i'm doing my best okay, kind of, medieval era, midren, oh I also might put in some medieval carnival shit because let me remind you that i'm extra, or she might also be hella bi, plus the youtuber i wanna add is really funny and works well with ro, possible plot twist, potions master, rap battle, sacrifice to the dead, someone's also probably gonna get speared, swiper no swiping the medallions, there always is in this show, there's also gonna be a rivalry, too soon?, we need to find more gems, well they virtually get set on fire, your fave will probably die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2019-05-08 00:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 37,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14682765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ETNMystic/pseuds/ETNMystic
Summary: In the span of 2 years, Joey Graceffa has lost 15 of his friends to death; 8 in 2016 and 7 in 2017. But when a mysterious Dark Prince sends him back in time to a mixture of the Renaissance and Medieval Eras, ten more people may be on Death Row.





	1. Are We Really Doing This Again?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Escape the Night: A Sequel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11697120) by [canufeelthemagictonight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight). 



> None of this is canon, and probably never will be. I just had an idea for a possible season 3 of "Escape the Night" and wanted to share it with the world. There is a huge chance that there may ACTUALLY be a season 3 this summer. Fingers crossed it's true. 
> 
> Otherwise, this is something I made up a premise for back in winter of 2018. 
> 
> And yes, I realize he may not know some of these people IRL, but we're going to say that, for the sake of this fanfic, he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a "what if" scenario. It's not canon, probably never will be.

 

“Is this thing on?” Lilly Singh asks as she adjusts her camera.   
"Okay, I just need to get it into focus."

She squints her eyes as she tries to put it into focus, but little barks and squeaks keep entering into her brain. Looking down, she sees her little pup Scarbro, looking as adorable as ever. 

“Scarbro, can you please be quiet for a minute?” she asks him kindly.  
“Mommy has to focus on something real quick. Oh wait. There we go!”

_Note to self: Debate on whether or not I should keep this footage in the video._

“Okay,” she says in a low voice as she steps back.  
“What up, everyone? It’s your girl, Superwoman!” 

This time her intro is not as enthusiastic because there is something on her mind, something that has been nibbling and gnawing at her mind for what seems like years.

She picks up Scarbro for comfort and he gives her little kisses.

“Okay, real talk,” she says, trying to play it off as a joke, even though it makes her stomach churn just thinking about it.  
“Has anyone seen Joey Graceffa? It seems like he’s been missing for about two years.”

* * *

On the other side of the screen, Rosanna Pansino sits in her kitchen watching Lilly’s newest video as she munches on a cookie while her dog, called Cookie, lays by her chair.

_“Like the last time I heard about him, he had that 1920s party or something and then like eight people went missing, but for two damn years?”_

Ro’s munching slows down as she begins to ponder.

_“Where IS Joey Graceffa?”_ she wonders as she puts down her cookie.

He hasn't been answering her calls or texts for almost two years, and it's starting to worry her.

She decides to text Dan Howell. Maybe he knows something she doesn't.

**Ro:** Hey. It’s Ro. Do you know what happened to Joey?

**Dan:** No clue. :/ it’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.  
**Dan:** Phil says hi, btw. And no, he doesn’t know either.

**Ro:** I’m worried. Maybe I should go to the police. 

**Dan:** Maybe he took a hiatus?

**Ro:** And in that time, eight of his friends have gone missing?

**Dan:** Maybe they’re on vacation with him?

Ro sighs and looks down at her dog. 

“C’mon, Cookie,” she tells her determined to crack this case.  
“Looks like we might have to do some detective work.”

She pulls out her laptop and searches “joey graceffa missing.” Hundreds of thousands of searches pop-up including a recent news article with the headline:

**YouTubers Dropping Like Flies. Seven High-Profile YouTubers have been reported missing.**

She clicks on it.

_Just this morning, there have been numerous reports of various high-profile YouTubers having gone missing. These reports were given just one year after fellow YouTube star Joey Graceffa threw a 1920s themed party on June 22nd of 2016. The morning after, eight high-profile YouTubers, including Shane Dawson and Justine Ezarik, had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth._

Ro scrolls through the rest of the article and looks at the names of those who were reported this morning:

Lauren Riihimaki

Jesse Wellens

Destorm Power

Liza Koshy

Tana Mongeau

Gabbie Hanna

Alex Burris, aka Wassabi Productions. 

The first name draws her attention. She had texted Lauren yesterday, asking if she wanted to hang out and collab on a video that evening. She told her that she couldn’t because she’d been invited to a party.

By Joey Graceffa.

* * *

Joey’s eyes shoot open.

He gasps as life is restored into him. But as it is, so are his memories. 

Shane Dawson, Andrea Brooks, Justine Ezarik, Glozell Green, Sierra Furtado, Matthew Haag, Timothy DeLaGhetto, and Lele Pons all dead in the 1920s. Not to mention the seven friends he just lost. Lauren Riihimaki, Jesse Wellens, DeStorm Power, Liza Koshy, Tana Mongeau, Gabbie Hanna, and Alex Wassabi, all dead in the Victorian Era. The only difference was that this time, it wasn’t his fault that they had been there. 

When he had had the first party, the one in the 1920s, he had personally invited his friends to the house. He figured he should take some sort of responsibility for that one, even if he didn’t know what was going to happen. But this time he’d been lured to the house. A sorceress took over and invited them here. This was not on him.

He tries to sit up but hits his head against something hard. He lifts his hand up and touches his head. What is that? Then he remembers. The Crown of Oblivion. That must be how he was revived!

He pushes his hand out and feels something wooden on top of him. Is that….a coffin? Is this what his friend Justine felt when she’d been buried alive? Oh no! Even just thinking about that death made him sick. It had been over a year since he lost his friend Justine, but her screams and cries still haunted him day and night. Was this payback for him not doing more to stop them from burying her alive? And anyway, how did he get inside of a coffin? 

He pushes harder and suddenly the coffin lid rises. Light flies inside of the wooden box and Joey shields his eyes before stepping out of it. 

“Guys!” he shouts as his feet touch the floor of the foyer.  
“It’s okay! I’m alive.”

He looks around. Riley and Jetpack Girl are gone, and so are Tyler and Andrea. On the floor lies the lifeless body of the sorceress, her throat slit and crusted with dried blood. One of those four managed to kill her.

“Guys?” he calls again as he bends over to pick up his blue coat.  
“Andrea? Tyler? Riley? Jetpack Girl?"

Had they really just left him? If they’d waited a little longer, they could’ve all gone home together. He doesn’t know how to get out of here. Is he still in the Victorian Era or is it now 2017? Well, if the sorceress is dead, someone must’ve used the crown to reverse the curse. 

_Joey……._

He hears a familiar voice call his name. He looks around, but doesn’t see anyone. 

_Joey, it’s me!_

There it is again. And it sounds so familiar. He decides to follow the voice. It leads him down the stairs and into the red hallway, the voices still calling his name.

_Joey._

_Where’s Joey?_

_Hey, Joey._

_Joey?_

_Joey!_

_Joey, where are you?_

_Come on, Joey!_

Seven voices keep calling his name. Even after all that he had experienced, those voices give him the chills, especially because of how friendly and familiar they sound. He takes several more steps.

_Because of course this is a good idea,_ he thinks to himself.  
_Follow some random voices through a house that just killed seven of your friends. That’s a *great* idea, Joey!_

The voices lead him into Cedric’s lab, and that’s when he stops dead in his tracks.

“No,” he says, his voice somewhat dead, but still frightened.  
“No, it can’t be.”

Seven ghostly figures stand in a row, staring straight into his soul with wide, dead eyes. Lauren Riihimaki, deathly pale with fang marks all over her body. Jesse Wellens, a giant spider bite on his neck, crusted with dried blood. Destorm Power, the center of his chest glowing green, right where he’d been shot. Liza Koshy, her neck slit, blood covering the front of her Explorer outfit. Tana Mongeau, her abdomen bloody and slain with a horizontal slash. Gabbie Hanna, a hole in her chest where her heart should be, blood seeping out of the wound. And Alex Wassabi, his mouth surrounded by blood and also seeping out of his chest where he had been stabbed. 

“Why did you let us die?” they all ask, their voices flat and no longer friendly.  
“Why didn’t you try to save us?"

“It wasn’t my fault,” he exclaims, his body trembling in fright.  
"I didn't invite you here!"

The ghosts begin to advance upon him and chanting.

 

_Guilty._

_Guilty._

_Guilty._

_Guilty._

_Guilty._

_Guilty._

_Guilty._

 

First quietly. Then louder as they close in on him. For every step they take forward, Joey takes two steps back. And soon, he rushes out of the lab, not daring to look back at the creatures. 

He soon finds himself in a dark room with a machine that's quietly spurting out steam. He places his hand upon his heart, trying desperately to catch his breath. 

_If I get out of this alive,_ he thinks.  
_I’m gonna get myself checked out. I don’t know how much more of this my body can take._

But then he sees it. And his heart drops. Pun intended. 

The sparkly clothes are covered in dried blood on the chest. He can see that the chest cavity is decaying. Her face is frozen in mid-scream, and her eyes wide in fright.

Gabbie Hanna, the Vaudevillian, the girl he had mixed virtually every type of alcohol with, inflated a bouncy house in his living room with, and had been one of the people to surprise him at the surprise birthday party his boyfriend had thrown for him. And now she’s just lying there after facing one of the most brutal deaths of that night and perhaps out of all of his dead friends.

“Gabbie, I’m so sorry,” he whispers as tears fall down his face.   
“I didn’t want this to happen to anyone.”

He’s now had fifteen of his friends die in the span of two years, but now he’s actually seeing one of their bodies up close. Not since Shane’s death has he had to look at one of the corpses of his friends. And it is torturous to him. 

All of a sudden, a quote similar to one from his favorite Harry Potter character comes to his mind.

_You should close her eyes, don’t you think?_

As tears fall down his face, Joey nods. He leans down, takes two of his fingers, and gently pushes down her eyelids. As if by instinct, he takes his coat off and covers her chest with it. 

_There,_ Luna Lovegood’s voice says gently in his head as he stands back up.  
_Now she could be sleeping._

Joey looks at what used to be Gabbie Hanna. It does look like she’s just sleeping, but Joey knows that that’s not the case. She was murdered in cold blood, just because Cedric was so desperate to have his automaton bride come to life. 

When he saw the bride come to life himself, it was cute, to be sure. But now that he’s seen what had to be given up for it to come to life, it’s slightly infuriating. No, not slightly. VERY infuriating. She was his friend. And now her heart is inside of a machine.

He doesn’t have time to react, though, as he feels something hit the back of his head. The world begins to blur as he stumbles around the room. 

_No,_ he thinks as he starts to lose his balance.  
_Not again. Take me, drown me, shoot me in the heart, but don’t you dare touch my friends!_

The world soon begins to turn black as he falls to the ground with a thud. And then, absolute silence.

* * *

From the shadows steps a figure dressed in all black, including a mask, eyes glowing red, and carrying a large black scepter, similar to the sorceress’, with a dark red orb on top. The cape they’re wearing grazes the floor as they look down at the now-unconscious Joey and grinning maliciously, letting out a villainous laugh.

_How adorable that he fell for the phantasmal illusion. Now it is my turn to summon his next victims._

They raise the scepter and the orb glows red as the mansion fades away and is replaced by a castle study. 

“Now,” the figure says in a dark, demonic voice through their mask.   
“Let’s see who will be next to face our little game.”

They raise the scepter again and soon, they’re inside his mind. They first come across two people who just left the Victorian Era. They look worn down and they realize they think he’s dead. Perhaps sending them an invitation might get them to come back. Then they’ll be the first to go.

He also sees two others leaving the 1920s, but this time with Joey. Perhaps they might be able to come back. Perhaps they’ve forgotten after two years.

Next they scroll through various friends, most of them dead, as well as a charming man with dark hair. But they can’t get past that one to find out who he is. But soon, they find ten of his friends who are alive. A short, brown-haired girl baking cupcakes in her kitchen. A brown girl wearing a snapback talking about productivity. A girl with purple hair playing a game online.

They soon find their names, hidden in his memory.

Rosanna. Lilly. Dan. Phil. Lauren. Dodie. John. Sean. Tessa. Anna.

_So innocent and naive. That will soon change._


	2. The Invitations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests receive their invitations, Lauren roasts her best friend, Dodie is suspicious, Sean's mom is a savage, and Dan dreads social interaction.
> 
> And not everyone is willing to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty much them receiving their invitations.

_Almost one year later……._

 

“Hey best friend!” Lauren Weber says mischievously as she control an anime girl on her computer.   
“Wanna have a campout? I brought marshmallows! You can help with the fire. Oh crap!”

The anime girl spills the bucket she’d been carrying. It splashes all over this girl with purple hair done up in twin drills. 

“Oops! Sorry, best friend. I got a…..I got a little too excited there.”

“What is this?” the purple-haired girl asks.  
“It smells like…..gasoline.”

“Don’t worry! I know how to dry you off.”

She presses a button, making the anime girl launch a match in the purple-haired girl’s direction.

“Hee hee hee!” she laughs mischievously. 

All of a sudden, she hears a pecking sound at her window. She turns around and is shocked to see an owl pecking at her window. In its beak is an envelope of some sort.

“Hold on, best friend. You get the fire ready for the campout. I’ll be right back,” she says casually as the purple-haired girl on the computer begins to scream in pain. 

She gets up and opens the window. The owl drops the letter in her hands and then flies off. 

“Huh,” she exclaims.  
“That was…..weird.”

She grabs a letter opener from a desk nearby and rips open the top. Inside is a piece of parchment with tears on the edges.

 

_My Dearest Friend,_ it begins.  
_I have been away for far too long and I apologize for worrying you. I would like to invite you to a ball at an estate unlike any other. I’ll explain everything after you arrive._

Lauren quickly reads through the rest of it and sees the name at the bottom. She gets back up and goes over to her husband in the bedroom.

“Hey Bobby,” she tells him as her pup Dexter follows her inside and onto the bed.  
“Guess who just got invited to a party?”

As she sits down on the bed next to him, she shows him the parchment. His eyes grow wide as he reads through it, especially when he reads the name at the bottom.

“Hasn’t he been missing for like two years?” Bobby asks.

“Yeah. That’s why I’m going,” she says.  
“I haven’t seen him in person, only over the internet and in the Sims."

“Are you sure?” he asks as Dexter licks his face.  
“Something seems off about this. Why would he just go missing and then suddenly reappear and invite you to a party?”

“I dunno, but maybe I’ll get to steal pink sodas with him, like in that dream I had.”

Bobby smiles sadly. Leave it to Lauren to have a dream as ridiculous as that. 

“Okay,” Bobby sighs as he takes ahold of her hands.  
“Just be careful.”

"I will. Now I gotta go check on best friend."

She and Dexter go downstairs only to find that her character has been apprehended and Best Friend is dead. 

"Can you imagine that?" she asks Dexter.  
"I think it'd be pretty scary to die in front of a bunch of people. Good thing that's not gonna happen."

* * *

_To attend this ball, you must assume the given persona reminiscent of the Renaissance and Medieval Eras and be dressed accordingly or the carriage which can take you across time will remain invisible to your eyes._

Dodie Clark has to reread that line a few times, just to be sure it says what she thinks it does.

“Travel across time?” she asks as she lies on her bed with her kitten curled up next to her.  
“That seems a bit suspicious. And who is this person?”

The name rings a slight bell to her. She's heard stories in the news of people going missing after attending his parties. While it sounds scary, Dodie's also intrigued. After reading through it a bit more, she shrugs. Why not? It might be kind of fun to dress up for a party.

"Yeah, I think I'll go."

* * *

_You may also not have any items with you from the modern world, as this shall also impede your ability to see the venue._

“Oh God,” Dan Howell sighs as he reads that line.  
“How did people in those times avoid being socially awkward?”

“Oh come on,” Phil Lester says excited.  
“This could be kind of fun. I really like the role I got. What did you get?”

Dan shrugs.

“I dunno. How do you know yours?"

“It says  _You will find your role and given characteristics on the back of this invitation."_

Dan turns his around and laughs at what he’s been given.

“Oh God! Really?” he laughs shaking his head.   
“Out of every Renaissance and Medieval persona, of course you gotta give me THAT one!”

“What role did you get?” Phil asks excitedly bouncing like a child, trying to look over Dan’s shoulder.

“I’m not gonna tell you,” Dan scoffs as he shields the letter from Phil.  
"You’ll have to find out yourself!”

* * *

_A package with the proper attire will soon arrive that may also contain a useful object._

Sean McLoughlin reads the letter aloud during a recording of a game. 

“Hey ma!” he yells into the background.  
“I just got invited to a party! You were wrong. I actually do have friends!”

After a few moments of silence, he yells again.

“No, they did NOT invite me out of pity!"

* * *

John Douglass turns his invitation around and looks at his characteristics. He purses his lips and nods.

“Yeah, okay,” he says.  
“I think I can pull this off. At least it’s not a furry."

He turns to his two dogs Klondike and Sundae who are digging at the couch pillows.

“I'm sure Erin can watch you two for the night."

* * *

_There will be many people and creatures unique to this estate that you will be able to interact with. Of this estate you will have no knowledge of. It will be as if you were reborn into a place full of wonder and fright._

_I shall expect you no later than 6 pm on the 22nd of June._

_Fondest Regards,  
_ _Joey Graceffa._

Anna Brisbin is taken aback. One moment she was just playing with her puppy Remus, and then the next there was an owl at her window with a letter in its beak. And to be honest, when she first saw it, she was disappointed that it was NOT from Hogwarts. And anyway, how does this guy know who she is? They’ve never even met in person. 

She feels something fluffy snuggle under her arm. She looks down and sees Remus. She can’t help but smile. 

“But who’s gonna look after you and Tori while I’m gone?” she asks as he licks her arm.

Maybe her friend Tessa? Suddenly she feels her phone vibrating. She picks it up to see that Tessa’s calling her.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asks.

_“Did you get an invitation?”_ Tessa Netting asks. 

“Yeah?” Anna says hesitantly.  
“Did you?”

_“Of course! And I love the role I got. It fits me perfectly! Your role should be on the back of the invitation.”_

Anna flips it over and sees her role. 

“What does that even mean?”

* * *

Oli White goes through his mail, one of which had been dropped into his hands by an owl for some reason. He gets to the one the owl dropped off and opens it. He skims through it, but once he sees the name, he sighs and puts his head in his hands.

“Did he not learn from last time he sent me one of these?”

He takes the letter over to the fireplace and throws it in there.

“I’m not gonna watch my friends be killed off like that. Never again!” he exclaims as he walks over to play with his puppy Milly. 

* * *

Eva Gutowski doesn’t even open her letter. She simply places some cat treats on top of it and sets it down next to her cat.

“Hey, Perris,” she says.  
“You wanna help me destroy a demonic letter?” 

Her cat Perris gives the letter a sniff and then immediately runs off with a yowl. 

“That’s what I thought,” she says as she dumps the cat treats into the trash before burning her invitation.

* * *

Unlike Eva and Oli, Andrea Russett isn't angry; she's actually shocked to receive a letter from him.

“Wait,” she exclaims doing a double-take as she reads the name.  
“Didn’t he die?”

She swears he's dead. She saw the Sorceress stab him and she saw him collapse down dead, she helped Tyler put him in his coffin! So how is he writing her?

Part of her wants to go back and see if he’s really alive. But she knows better than that. If this party is anything like the one she went to last year, there is NO WAY she’s going. In spite of being the Mystic last year, Andrea’s done with ANYTHING even closely related to time-travel or magic or mystery for a GOOD, LONG WHILE. 

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna pass,” she says as she rips up and tosses the letter into the trash.

* * *

“Joey Graceffa,” Tyler Oakley exclaims in astonishment as he reads the letter.  
“How? I thought you were dead!” 

Tyler’s hands tremble as he reads the name at the bottom. He’s almost certain he got stabbed by the Sorceress. Tyler even put the crown on the head of his corpse before they left him in that coffin. Does he dare go back to see if this is for real? Part of him is tempted to, but he’s much wiser now than he was a year earlier. He doesn’t mind acting and wearing costumes, he WAS the Thespian last year after all, but after what he’s been through, he doesn’t want anything else popping up and surprising him. Not for a long time. 

“Honestly, I’m done with all of that running,” he sighs.  
“I don’t want to do anymore voting or gauntlets or eating candy.”

He shivers as he thinks about the pie he had to eat. Even if it was just one, small bite, there were still people BAKED INTO IT. 

“I’ll pass this one up.”

* * *

The night of the party comes around and the old-fashioned carriages come to pick up the fourteen guests. Four of them, the relatively-seasoned veterans of Joey’s parties, stay at home. The other ten leave 2018 behind for a night of fun in the MidRen.

But for some of them, this will be the last night of their lives. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: The guests arrive, and their outfits are KILLER.


	3. The Guests Arrive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests arrive and the outfits are KILLER.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty much just the descriptions of their outfits, though you do get to find out their roles.

 

The first to arrive is Rosanna Pansino as the Alchemist. She’s donning a dark violet dress, a black bodice, black-strapped, short boots, and a crimson, hooded cloak. On her neck is a small, bronze amulet with the Wiccan symbol. Her brown hair is curled slightly and pinned back just a bit to give her outfit a bit more of a fantastical feel.

 

Next to enter the party is Lilly Singh as the Archer. Slightly reminiscent of Link from the Zelda series, she’s sporting an emerald green tunic top with a light hood, a black belt near the waist, brown pants that go just past her knees, and tall brown boots. On her back is a brown bow and quiver full of arrows. Her long, black hair is tied into a long ponytail.

 

Darkening the doorway is Dan Howell as the Plague Doctor. In classic Plague Doctor fashion, he’s wearing a black bird man mask but on top of his black hat so as not to scare anyone at the party. Everything from the neck down is also black; black boots, black belt, black gloves, black shoulder cape, and black robe that drops to just above his ankles. The only thing that’s not black is the tip of his staff, which is a small pair of bronze wings.

 

Following just behind him is Phil Lester as the Astronomer. His dark brown robe, shirt, pants, and boots have faded gold stitched around the holes. On his head is a hat of the same color with a dark purple feather sprouting out of one side.

 

Not a few moments later is Lauren Weber as the Painter. Her hair is pinned back by a ton of bobby pins. She’s wearing a black, long-sleeved dress with small, spherical, goofy sleeves. On her front is a white apron. On her feet are two simple brown shoes. Behind her ear are two paintbrushes.

 

Mystifying the foyer is Tessa Netting who, true to her word as a lover of Harry Potter, fits the role of the Witch. She sports a long, priestess-style dress in blue with a black bodice, a brown, silk hood, and long, flowy sleeves in the same color. Under her dress is a pair of black, high-heeled shoes. On her neck is a small, golden amulet with the Wiccan symbol. Surrounding her head is a simple, silver, Wiccan headdress with a small jewel dangling on the center front.

 

Nearly tripping into the doorway is Sean McLoughlin who plays the Harlequin Jester. On his head is a red and black hat with silver bells at the ends. His nearly full body suit is red and black-checkered with white poofy sleeves and a neck piece. On his face is a black mask with gold around the edge. His hands don white gloves. And his feet are shoes of the same color with silver bells on the ends.

 

Coming in with a bit more sophistication is John Douglass as the Scholar, keeping it rather simplistic and smart. His black robes goes to just below his knees and are lined with velveteen red, whereas his hat is a solid black color. His black boots come to just above his knees and cover just a bit of his black pants.

 

Adding a bit more life to the scene is Dodie Clark as the Minstrel. Her long dress is a beautiful velveteen, emerald green with gold embroidered on the edges. Her hair is curled slightly and in her hands, she carries an old-fashioned mandolin in brown.

 

Last, but not least, is Anna Brisbin as the Falconer. Also slightly reminiscent of Link, she dons a forest green tunic top with long, flowy sleeves that goes to just above the knees and a pair of white pants that drop to just above the ankles. On her feet is a pair of tall brown boots. A black strap sits just above her waist. Her fire red hair is also pinned back, exposing her ears. 

 

Their host, Joey Graceffa as the Savant, is currently nowhere to be seen. But the guests aren’t too worried as they congregate and chat in the foyer of the castle. They’re all just here to have a good time. Besides, Joey’s bound to show up at some point.

 

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: Anna doesn't know much about falcons, Dan doesn't want the plague to be cured, Phil's tracking the movements of Uranus, and Tessa's got a secret to keep. 
> 
> Oh yeah, and they also try to find Joey.


	4. Introductions and Concerns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests begin to get to know each other and get into character. But where the eff is Joey?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somewhat mandatory section of "Escape the Night" where everyone is REALLY into their characters and introduces themselves to the others.

Rosanna cannot believe where she is. She was first inside of an old-fashioned carriage, and now she’s inside of a huge stone castle. It’s almost like something right out of a fairytale, and at her height, she looks like a fairy in comparison to the other guests. 

_Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,_ she thinks.  _But it’s indeed a thing._

Speaking of magic, she’s captivated by Tessa’s wardrobe. She comes up to her and says hi.

“So what are you?” she asks in a friendly voice.

Surprisingly Tessa’s eyes grow wide and fill with panic. She’s full on in character here, and she’s not sure who she can trust to tell that she’s a witch. 

“Uh, I’m not sure if I know you well enough to tell you.”

Ro smiles and nods. In her mind, she has a feeling that Tessa is dressed up as something that, back in those days, wasn’t particularly acceptable to be. She admires her dedication to the eras.

“What are you?” Tessa shoots back as Anna walks up to the group.

“I’m an Alchemist,” Ro answers.

“An Alchemist?” Anna asks.  
“What does that mean?”

“Yeah, what does that mean?” Tessa agrees.

“I do a lot of things,” Ro replies.  
“I transmute base metals into noble ones, create elixirs, I’m actually working on one to help cure the Black Plague. It’s been getting pretty bad where I’m from, so we’re hoping that this will alleviate the symptoms or maybe cure it.”

“Cure it?” she hears a voice behind her ask. 

The group turns to see Dan in shock.

“Yeah,” Ro responds.  
“Is that a problem?"

“Well, if you do that, you’re gonna put me out of a job.”

The government pays him to work, after all. If there’s no one with the plague, he’s out of work. And he really doesn’t want to go back to his old job.

“I can assure you, doctor,” Ro replies.  
“We may not see a cure for the Black Plague for a good while. We’re still in the trial phases.”

Dan breathes a sigh of relief.

“Thank God. You scared me with that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go stare into the abyss and reflect on how many people I’ve had to watch die while in my care.”

He turns away slowly and glides away. Ro can't help but giggle a little. Dan's existentialism is too fitting for a role so dark as a Plague Doctor. Joey made such a fitting decision. As if nothing happened, Ro turns back to Anna.

“What about you?” 

"I work with Falcons,” she replies.  
“I usually train them to hunt, but I’ve also trained them to deliver messages. It’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself.”

Anna really hopes that’s right. She did a bit of research on Falconry before she arrived, but nothing too in-depth. And she’s a bit worried that Joey might ask some in-depth questions about what each of their roles do.

* * *

Sean, on the other hand, hasn’t a care in the world. He knows what a Jester is. Maybe not a Harlequin Jester, per say, but he’s pretty sure it’s just like a regular one. 

He’s over by the stairs joking around with Lilly and Dodie. 

“I’m pretty sure I’ve got it this time,” he assures the two as he tries to do a cartwheel for the twentieth time, he stretches before he gets into position.

“Okay, here we go!”

He leans to one side and tries to nail the landing, but instead ends up falling flat on his face. 

“Are you okay?” Dodie asks concerned.

“Yep!” he exclaims.  
“I guess I just put the cart-wheel before the horse.”

Dodie can’t help but chuckle a little at such horrid humor. 

“Do you really know how to play that?” Lilly asks her as Sean helps himself up. 

“Of course,” Dodie replies kind of quietly.   
“I trained under a master musician for several years. They taught me all the basics and mentored me on some of the more advanced songs.

“Yeah? Well, I trained under Robin Hood,” Lilly retorts. 

Lilly can’t help but be just a little cocky and overconfident. After all, while he was a good man and a master archer, Robin Hood was slightly cocky himself. 

* * *

Meanwhile a group of intellectuals, John and Phil, as well as Lauren, discuss their pursuits. 

“I’ve actually helped Michelangelo with some of his works. I helped him get that job painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,” Lauren informs them.

“Michelangelo? You mean like the turtle?” Phil asks innocently.

“One does not name creatures such as turtles,” John says in a sophisticated tone. He’s totally hamming it up, and loving every second of it.  
“Unless that is what you do for a living?”

“Oh no. I’m actually an astronomer.”

“Hmm,” John remarks.  
“I’m intrigued. Do tell.”

“I help track the positioning of the planets and stars in relation of earth. I’ve currently been tracking the movements of Uranus.”

“Uranus?” a voice asks followed by a loud laugh.

Sean pops up in between Phil and John. 

“Hey John! Phil says he’s been tracking the movements of——“

“Oh please, Sean,” John sniffs.  
“We are above such vulgar humor, if one could even call it humor.”

In reality, John’s not above it, and he has to use a good portion of his mental energy to keep himself from busting out laughing. He got pretty close to busting a gut, but it seems he did a decent job of keeping himself controlled. 

* * *

Tessa, however, is getting impatient.

“Okay, well, this is great and all,” Tessa exclaims after a while.  
“But has anyone seen our host?”

The room falls dead silent as everyone looks around. 

“Before anyone says anything, I didn’t make him disappear, at least I don’t think I did,” she says quickly.

“What?” Anna asks confused.

“Nothing! Where is he?”

The silence turns into a quiet murmur of concern. Everyone begins to look around for something that might lead them to Joey.

“I really wish I brought one of my falcons,” Anna remarks as she begins to scope out the area.  
“They’d be able to track him down for sure.”

She’s trying to think of more Falconer-y things to say. For some reason, she feels a need to convince people that she is a Falconer, at least for just one night. It’s as if this place is distorting her reality slightly. 

All of a sudden, her hand brushes against a book case and a part of her 2018 self emerges as she scans through the titles.

“Damn it!” she exclaims when she gets through most of the shelves.  
“No  _Harry Potter_ books.”

“I do not think Harold Potter existed in the MidRen,” John adds, making Anna roll her eyes. 

Suddenly she pulls on one of the books and she hears a click from behind it. The book case comes open and slides to the side to reveal a wide, dark staircase.

“Hey guys!” she says.  
“I think I did a thing.”

Everyone comes over and peeks inside of the corridor. Could this lead them to Joey?

“I’ll go first,” Lilly volunteers.

“But we don’t have a way to see what’s in front of us,” Anna adds.

“We could try taking one of the torches off of the wall,” Tessa suggests. 

Lilly reaches for the nearest torch, and sure enough, it comes off from the wall.

“Okay then. Let’s go,” she says leading the group along the dark corridor. 

* * *

The staircase seems to spiral downward and to the left. They walk for about five minutes, which is an extremely long time to walk down one. How long is this staircase?

“Oh gosh,” Rosanna exclaims as she and Lauren follow close behind next to Dan and Phil.  
“You think Joey’s really down here?”

Ro has no clue what’s down these steps, and honestly, she’s a little scared to ask. 

“Maybe it’s just a prank,” Lauren suggests. 

At least she’s really hoping it’s a prank. Maybe Joey will just pop out from somewhere, turn on the lights, and yell “Surprise!” But the further she goes down these stairs, the less likely that that becomes a possibility. 

Finally they reach the end. The floor is wet cobblestone and they can hearing moans and cries. 

“Are we in a dungeon? Like, an actual dungeon?” Dodie asks.

Dodie’s not really fond of being in a dungeon. It’s dark, it’s creepy, and there could be spiders.

“I think so,” Dan agrees.

Lilly’s not afraid, or at least that’s the impression she’s trying to give off. All of a sudden, she hears someone familiar cry out.

“Hello?” she asks.

And without warning, she runs up ahead, but soon skids to a halt when she sees him chained up to the wall in Middle Age-style clothes of nobility and asleep.

 

Joey Graceffa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Puzzle Time! Let's hope they do better than the YouTubers in season 1, episode 1. 
> 
> (Also if the end notes from chapter 1 keep showing up below the actual end notes, just ignore them).


	5. The Puzzle Quadrilogy Part 1: The Ravenclaws Riddled.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests have found Joey, but now they must work in teams to unlock his shackles. And now, it's puzzle time! Anna and Tessa take to solving riddles and a secret is revealed that may help them find their key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anna and Tessa's section was a bit long for me, so I decided I'm gonna split these puzzles up into chapters.

 

Ro isn’t quite sure why Joey has a dungeon in his castle. But she’s also not sure if this castle is even his. Is he playing a joke on them by chaining himself to the wall? She knows he can be a bit dramatic, but chaining himself up against a dungeon wall? That seems way too far, even by his standards.

Nonetheless, she’s the first to approach him. 

“Joey?” she asks gently.  
“Joey, wake up. It’s me, Ro.”

She gently takes ahold of his leg and gives him a little shake. This wakes him up and he gives an exclamation of fright when he sees his ten friends. 

“Joey, what happened to you?” Lilly asks.  
“Why are you chained up?”

Did he do this to himself? Is this just part of the party? Lilly isn’t sure if Joey is like that; someone who would chain himself up for kicks.

“Wha…” he groans as he stirs and opens his eyes. Once he sees everyone, he gasps.   
“What are you all doing here?”

Dan’s not buying this. How stupid does Joey think he is? Is he really just gonna invite ten people and then pretend like he doesn’t know why they’re there?

“You invited us here, of course,” Dan scoffs.

Joey’s in a state of shock. This has happened again? But isn’t the sorceress dead? Is this someone else who wants to take over the world, and needs souls to do it? And now ten of his friends may be on the chopping block again.

“Why do you look so scared?” Phil asks.

“I didn’t invite you here,” Joey replies with a quiver in his voice.

A sense of confusion and terror ripples throughout the guests. 

“You’re joking, right? This is just some sort of a prank, isn’t it?” Lauren asks with an awkward and slightly terrified laugh.

Joey’s stunned silence seems to answer her question.

_Oh my God,_ she thinks.  
_He’s not kidding. He’s completely serious. He REALLY doesn't know why we're here. But wait, if he didn’t invite us, then who did?_

_“_ You need to get out of here,” Joey tells them somberly. 

“Okay, bye,” Dan shrugs as he turns to go. 

It’s not that he doesn’t like Joey. He’s a nice guy, after all. But Dan didn’t want to go to this ball in the first place. He would have rather just stayed at home, under the covers, with some snacks, binge-watching Netflix and browsing tumblr until 4 am……because that totally doesn’t show how sad his life is or anything.

“No!” Phil snaps as he grabs onto Dan’s shoulder cape.  
“I’m not going without you, Joey.”

“I agree,” Ro pipes up.  
"Don't worry, Joey. We're gonna get you out of this."

“But this could be dangerous,” Joey says.

“Do you think we give an eff?” Lilly asks angrily.  
“Joey, we’re your friends. And friends don’t leave each other behind when they’re in trouble. We’re not leaving until you’re outta there.”

Agreement ripples throughout the guests. Dan turns back around and groans.

“Yeah, okay, I can stay to help.”

“Question is,” Dodie asks.  
“Where do we even start?”

Suddenly Tessa spies a piece of paper by Joey’s feet. She picks it up and reads it aloud:

_So it seems you’ve found Joey. But how are you to free him, you ask. I have hidden four keys within four different puzzles. If you are to set him free, you must solve all four of them. But to obtain the keys, you must work in teams, for these puzzles cannot be truly solved alone._

_One key is hidden within a box inside of a tilting platform. You will find this puzzle in the Northeast corner of the dungeon._

_The second key is hidden within the four unbalanced humors. You will find this puzzle in the Southwest corner of the dungeon._

_The third key is hidden in a plethora of riddles. You will find this one in the Northwest corner of the dungeon._

_The final key is unlike the others, for it isn’t hidden; it is nonexistent. This key must be created out of the finite materials you are given. You will find this key in the Southeast corner of the dungeon. Next to the corner is the door that leads to the alchemy lab._

Immediately everyone scrambles into teams. Anna and Tessa decide to tackle the riddle puzzle. Lauren and Ro head to the alchemy lab. Dan and Phil go for the humors puzzle. Sean and Dodie take to the tilting platform. John and Lilly, after some deliberation, head to the alchemy lab and the tilting puzzle respectively. 

 

* * *

 

Anna’s got winged keys in her stomach. Yes, she means winged keys. She doesn’t know what this will entail; just that it involves riddles. She’s pretty good at riddles and so is Tessa, what with both of them being Ravenclaws, but who knows what kind of riddles this will have. 

When they arrive in the Northwest corner, they’re surprised to find about two dozen small boxes, each with a word on them. Below Anna’s feet is a letter. She picks it up and reads:

 

_In order to retrieve this key, you must go around from box to box until you find the one that contains it. Each box has a word engraved on top of it, and inside is a riddle. These words are possible answers to the riddles you are given. The riddle inside of the box with the correct answer will lead you to another box. Solve all of them correctly and you’ll be lead to the key. But beware, these boxes are locked by magic. Pick up the wrong one, and you may breathe your last breath. Your first riddle starts here:_

_Feed me, and I shall live.  
_ _Bathe me, and I shall die.  
_ _What am I?_

Tessa and Anna think it over for a minute. 

“Fire,” Tessa says.  
“It’s got to be fire.”

Anna starts scrambling around until she finds the one with the word  _“Fire”_ engraved on the top. Flipping it open, she finds the second riddle: 

_What is easy to get into, but difficult to get out of?_

“Trouble,” Anna answers. 

Tessa tries to step over the boxes, but her dress is so big and flowy that the hem brushes over the boxes and scorches them. 

“Why are you wearing such a big dress?” Anna asks.

“It’s part of my character,” she says.

“What’s your character?” 

“I don’t know if I can trust you. Oh wait. Here it is.”

_Why can’t she trust me?_ Anna wonders as Tessa picks up the box with the word  _“Trouble”_ engraved on it.   
_We know each other._

Opening the box, Tessa reads:

_Many get in me, but never get out._  
_Many sleep, but never awaken.  
What am I?_

This one’s a bit of a toughie, but Anna figures it out and rushes for a box with the word  _“Coffin”_ on it. 

_I always run round, but I never move.  
_ _What am I?_

“Time?” Anna asks.

“No,” Tessa disagrees, shaking her head.  
“Time moves forward.”

“Wait. A clock!”

Tessa rushes over to the box marked  _“Clock.”_

_I am not a virus, but spreading me could be your end._

_What am I?_

“A rumor,” Tessa answers.

Anna dashes for another box, almost tripping over the others. Finding the one marked  _“Rumor,”_ she opens it and reads

_The more I am passed around, the bigger I grow._

_What am I?_

“Isn’t this the same as the last one?” Tessa asks, confused.

“Maybe the answer to this one is close to rumor?” Anna hypothesizes.

“A lie? Cuz rumor’s are usually false?”

“It’s worth a try.”

Nearly breaking their necks, they dash to the box with  _“Lie”_ engraved in it and read:

_I am like a witch’s brew,_  
_I make people do what they don’t want to,_  
_At the sound of my voice,_  
_You have no choice,_  
_But to do what’s requested of you._

_What am I?_

“Witch’s brew? What do witches do?” Anna asks.

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t know,” Tessa laughs nervously as she fidgets with her hands.  
“Because I’m totally not a witch.”

Anna stares at her confused. 

_What is up with Tessa? She’s not usually like this. Is she just really into character?_

“Okay,” Anna says slowly, confused at Tessa's behavior.  
“Let’s try to figure this out.”

They go through several possibilities.

“Love?” Tessa suggests.

“No, that doesn’t seem right. Maybe power?”

"Do you see a box that says power?"

Anna decides to look on the tops of all of the boxes. 

"Be careful," Tessa warns her.  
"If we pick the wrong one, we're dead."

Anna really doesn't need to be reminded of that. She looks on the top, merely skimming the words, but the word "power" is nowhere in sight.

"Nope. Let's check the others."

They looking at all of the boxes, but none of them seem to make sense as an answer. They find words like _"throne," "eye," "soul,"_ and even  _"sniffle,"_ but nothing makes sense! Soon the both of them are so mentally exhausted, they can’t keep looking.

“I have no idea,” Tessa pants as she flops down on the floor.

“Neither do I,” Anna groans.  
“And what’s worse is I feel dead.”

“Well, look on the bright side. At least we’re not ACTUALLY dead.”

“Yeah."  
  
They sit there for a while, trying to think some more. But something keeps biting at the back of Anna’s mind. It’s only after the pain in her head is too much to bear that she decides to ask.  
  
“Why won’t you tell me what you are, Tessa?” Anna asks.  
“We know each other in real life.”

“Cuz it’s not something you want to be in this time period.”

“I’ll keep it a secret. I promise no one will know.”

“People might hear me tell you.”

“You can just say it really quietly. Tessa, tell me. Please.”

At an impasse, Tessa purses her lips and whispers

“I’m a witch.”

Hearing this, Anna face palms herself, as she remembers what Tessa said over the phone; this should've been child's play, guessing her role.

“It does fit you pretty well,” she laughs.

“Yeah,” Tessa chuckles.   
"But it’s not something you’d want to tell someone back in the era. Otherwise they’d probably try to kill you.”

Suddenly her eyes widen and she gasps. 

“Tessa, what is it?”

“I think I figured it out!” she exclaims as she suddenly shoots up like a bullet. She starts running around, bending over, checking the boxes. She reminds Anna of a bird going around and checking which egg is their’s, and frankly, she’s not sure why, but it's both confusing and hilarious.

“I found it!” she squeals excitedly. 

Picking up the box, she zips back over to Anna and shows her the top. Engraved in gold is the word  _“Please.”_

“I think this is the one!” 

She shakes it like a child shaking their presents during Christmas. Something clinks against the wood. Ecstatic, Tessa flips open the box. Sure enough, inside is a small bronze key.

“This is it!” she exclaims.

“Great!” Anna says as she stands up.  
“How did you figure it out?” 

“When you told me to reveal my character, you said the word ‘please.’ And you know what parents teach their kids about that word, right?"

After a few moments, Anna’s eyes widen.

“It’s the magic word,” they say together before laughing.

“I gotta hand it to whoever set this up,” Anna says.  
“They’re pretty clever to use a riddle like that one.”

“Definitely. Anyway, let’s head back to Joey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Dan and Phil take on balancing the humors, and it's as ridiculous as you'd expect.


	6. The Puzzle Quadrilogy Part 2: A Puzzle Most Humorous.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Phil take on balancing humors. And it's as hectic as you'd expect it to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Phil really need to learn how to plan ahead.

 

Dan isn’t quite sure what exactly an unbalanced humour is, but he’s pretty sure that whoever set this puzzle up doesn’t mean like jokes and shit. So he’s a little nervous about this one.

_It’s okay, Dan,_ he tries to convince himself.  
 _You have Phil with you. Just pretend this is a Dan and Phil Games video or something, and you’ll be fine. Besides there probably won’t be any jumpscares._

“DAN!” Phil exclaims, jolting him out of his thoughts.

Dan gives a shriek and nearly topples over. It seems he spoke too soon. 

“Jesus Christ, Phil! You nearly gave me a bloody heart attack.”

“Sorry, but we need to figure this puzzle out.”

They find themselves by a diagram of a human body. Phil finds a note and picks it up, reading:

_This puzzle requires a sense of rhythm and coordination from two people. In order to increase the types of humor, you must rapidly press the button that corresponds to that humor. To decrease a certain humor, simply let go of the button, and to keep the humor where it is, you must press and hold down on the button. Once you have balanced out the humors, you will be given the key, but you must grab it quickly, for the device is a sensitive one. If a single humor becomes unbalanced, even for a split second, the key will disappear and you must rebalance it. If this happens 3 consecutive times, the humors will automatically unbalance themselves into a new pattern, requiring new rhythms to keep it balanced._

“Oh God,” Dan groans.   
“This is gonna be like  _I am Bread,_ isn’t it?"

_The humors you must balanced and their respective colors are:_

_Green-Phlegmatic: Passive, calm, peaceful._

_Red-Sanguine: Lively, carefree, easy-going._

_Yellow-Choleric: Touchy, restless, aggressive._

_Black-Melancholic: Pessimistic, anxious, moody._

_The system will activate once you touch your first button._

“Tag yourself,” Dan says dryly trying to add humor to the humors.  
“I’m Melancholic.”

“They should’ve just renamed it Dan,” Phil adds with a chuckle.

“If only I was around back then.”

The two look up in front of them. There is a diagram of a person. In the abdominal and chest areas are four different sections with red, yellow, green, and black liquids in them, all at different marks. 

“Right, okay, we’re going to try to get them halfway,” Dan announces clapping his hands.  
“Phil, you take Phlegmatic and Sanguine and I’ll take the emo humors.”

“Why?”

“Because those are my true forms, Phil. Those are……literally me in liquid form.”

Dan and Phil take their respective places and study the humors. 

“Okay, so it looks like red is the fullest,” Phil observes.   
“And yellow is the least full. I think we need to let the red drain to halfway and then hold the button down to keep it stable.”

“Right, so what we’ve gotta do is….”

But Phil’s not listening. He’s already started pressing and holding buttons.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dan yells.  
“Jesus Christ, Phil! You’ve..... gone and started the bloody thing.”

_This is EXACTLY like_ **I am Bread,** Dan thinks exasperated.

“I’m sorry,” Phil squeaks.  
“When I see buttons, I want to press them. They’re just like bubble wrap for me.”

_Phil, what the actual bloody hell? Joey’s gonna be trapped down here because of you!_

“Right, okay,” Dan sighs resentfully.

“You know what? We’re just going to have to wing it. Which will make me very uncomfortable, but I don’t think we have a choice.”

“At least it’s not Slenderpants, so there probably won’t be any jumpscares.”

Dan looks up at Phil.

“We do not ever speak of Slenderpants,” he says flatly.   
“Especially when we’re in a dungeon.”

“Sorry,” Phil squeaks. 

“Okay, right. You know what, Phil, just quickly press the red button once and let it drain to about halfway. Then I’ll need to just take that yellow button and just keep hitting it. Like I'm a…….”

Dan struggles to find a simile.

“A machine gun?”

_Yeah, that should work._

“Sure,” Dan agrees.  
“Like a machine gun."

While Phill gets to the red, Dan tries to rise the Choleric liquid, but the button keeps slipping from him. 

“Oh, for God’s sake!” he exclaims as the button slips from him for a third time.   
“This is hell, Phil. This is literally hell.”

“I dunno what you mean,” Phil shrugs as he works on the green whilst holding down the red.  
“I love pressing buttons.”

“Well, I’m not you, Phil, okay? This is………a lot of bloody work. Why’d you even make me come to this?”

“Cuz I thought it’d be fun for once. It’s dressing in costumes.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t come here to do puzzles, Phil. I came here to get some……..flipping crisps and chips or something.”

“And ice cream?"

“And ice cream. Honestly, when we get home, I’m just gonna throw myself under the covers and watch every episode of  _Yuri on Ice_ again. Cuz I am DONE with puzzles. Oh, about time!"

Dan finally manages to get the button under his control. Groaning, he reluctantly begins to work on the other one. After a while of pushing buttons, they hold the liquids to halfway and a drawer to Phil’s left pops open containing the key.

“There it is!” Phil exclaims as he ever so slightly lifts the finger off.

Dan knows exactly what’s about to happen and he panics.

“Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!” he blabbers loudly.

“What? What is it?”

“Do NOT let go of the buttons! Otherwise the drawer is gonna close and we’re gonna have to do it again."

Phil presses back down on the button heavily.

“But how do we get the key then?”

“I dunno. Use your teeth, I guess?”

Phil takes a deep breath and bends down towards the drawer. He begins to sweat as he reaches with his mouth for the key. Dan begins to panic. 

_What if Phil lets go of the buttons? What if Phil drops it back in the drawer? WHAT IF HE SWALLOWS THE BLOODY THING?_

_……..Okay, Dan, calm down. Phil’s not stupid enough to swallow the key. Right?”_

Thankfully, Phil gets the key out of the drawer. He lets go of the buttons before letting the key drop in his hands.

“We got it!” Phil squeals.

Dan really wants to flip the diagram off. 

_Yeah! Take that, you…...mother……fluffin’ hoe! We got the key! One point for Dan and Phil and zero for you! We got your flippin’ key! We’re gonna get Joey out of his shackles and then go home and bingewatch Netflix and play some Fortnite and bingewatch Yuri on Ice and you can just suck it!_

But he tries to remain calm.

“Okay, now we gotta get back to Joey, and quickly!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Lilly and Dodie are stubborn and Sean REALLY just wants to get the heck outta there.


	7. The Puzzle Quadrilogy Part 3: Tilting Tempers.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dodie, Sean, and Lilly take on the tilting puzzle to get their key. And we may have a slight rivalry beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're more than halfway through the Puzzle Quadrilogy.

Dodie feels butterflies in her stomach. She doesn't really know why she picked the tilting puzzle. She sort of chose it as a last minute decision. She doesn’t really think of herself as being good at riddles, alchemy isn’t her strongest suit, and she’s not really sure what exactly the humors are. 

“Ah, here we are,” Sean announces.

They stop in front of a large, wooden maze. Suddenly they hear footsteps behind them.

“Hey, can I help you out?” Lilly asks.

_Why not?_ Dodie thinks.  
 _She seems nice enough and we could always use an extra hand on such a big maze._

“Sure. Is that okay with you?” she asks Sean.

“Yep,” he agrees.

“Okay, so what do we need to do?” Lilly asks, starting to feel pumped.

Dodie looks around and suddenly finds a note below her. Picking it up, she reads:

 

_This puzzle requires a sense of location, coordination, strength, and a team effort. Each of you must take a side and tilt the key through the maze. If only three of you are present, the strongest person should take two sides next to one another. If need be, you can study the maze and figure out where you need to tilt the maze before you begin. Once the maze is first tilted, you will have five minutes to get it to the exit. If in that time the key is still within the maze, a trapdoor will open and the key will be taken back to the center of the maze. If the key falls into the trapdoor three consecutive times, the maze will shift into an entirely new pattern. When the map switches, a randomly-selected compartment will open. Within this compartment is an angry venomous creature. It will strike the person who is closest to them. Their venom is fast-acting and there is no antidote nearby._

 

“Oh God,” Sean groans

“So we basically have to get it out of there on the first try,” Lilly summarizes, trying to sound confident.  
“Okay.”

_I’ve got this,_ Lilly thinks.  
 _I’m persistent. I can do this._

“So which one of us is the strongest?” Sean asks.

“Well, it’s probably not her,” Lilly scoffs, pointing to Dodie.

She’s not trying to be mean, but this Minstrel girl looks so sweet and petite and adorable. There’s no way she’s the strong one out of those three, physically at least. 

“I can do it.”

Lilly takes the sides closest to the entrance of the puzzle. Dodie takes a side and Sean takes the side to her right.

“Wait,” Dodie says.  
“Shouldn’t we study the maze first and then tilt it?”

_Oh yeah,_ Lilly thinks.  
 _I almost forgot about that._

It’s not that Lilly isn't smart. She just sometimes jumps into things before observing. 

They back up and study the maze. 

“Okay,” Sean begins.  
“So the key is in the middle. And the exit of the middle can be any of the four open ways. Where’s the exit hole?”

Dodie, being the smallest of the group, squats down and finds a hole carved into the wood on her side. 

“It’s on my side, towards the right.

“So Sean’s taking the top,” Lilly clarifies.  
“And I’m taking the left and bottom.”

“Yeah,” Dodie agrees nodding.   
“So should we tilt it towards me, since that’s where the exit is?”

“That seems to make the most sense. Okay, Sean, just tilt it towards Dodie.”

Sean tries to lift the table, but he ends up lifting it in the wrong direction, causing the key to slide towards Lilly. 

“No, towards DODIE,” Lilly groans in frustration.  
“Okay, we’ll just have to work with this.”

Dodie tries tilting it towards her. She studied the table a bit and knows that if they tilt it towards the right, even in the position the key is in, it will STILL get the key over to her, and ultimately the exit, faster.

“Dodie, tilt it towards me,” Lilly orders her.

“If we tilt it towards me, we’ll get it faster,” Dodie argues.

“No, if we tilt it that way, we’re gonna get stuck in a dead end. Just tilt it towards me.”

“I studied the table, so I think I know what I’m doing.”

"I have a map planned out. I think I know what I'm doing."

"But that map you have planned may lead the key further away!"

Lilly huffs in frustration. Is Dodie trying to compensate for how petite she is? 

_I’m the tallest of the group. I can see the map even while tilting the table. I think **I** know what  **I’M** doing._

Dodie and Lilly keep fighting against each other. All the while, Sean’s just holding the table, his eyes going back and forth as if he were watching a tennis match. Right now he just wants to get the key and go somewhere where no one is held in shackles. 

“Okay, look,” Dodie huffs.  
“If we keep fighting, we’re not going to get the key in time. So could we just try it my way? Besides it’s almost been five minutes.”

“You know what? Fine,” Lilly agrees reluctantly.   
“If you’re so sure, then let’s try it your way.”

“Okay, so just tilt it towards me, then towards Sean, and then back to me. That should get it out.”

Lilly rolls her eyes as she helps tilt the table towards Dodie, then towards Sean, and then back to Dodie.

_There’s no way this is going to work,_ Lilly thinks.

_She’s just messing with us, isn’t she? We really should’ve tried it my—_

All of a sudden, there’s a clink against the dungeon floor. Dodie leans down and there’s the key.

“I got it!” she says as she pops back up with her hand in the air.  
“I got the key.”

Lilly’s in shock as Dodie beams with pride. So it did work after all. And now she feels really bad cuz she had it all planned out in her head. She was sure that HER WAY was fool-proof. And it’s hard for her to hide her emotion on her face.

“Nice job!” Sean congratulates Dodie, giving her a high five.

“Thanks, now let’s get this back to Joey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> John is less than helpful, Lauren is so done with him, and Rosanna is adorable.


	8. The Puzzle Quadrilogy Part 4: Double, Double, Alchemy Trouble.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosanna, Lauren, and John take on the alchemy lab. Also, see if you can find my pop culture reference.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the last chapter of the Quadrilogy.

 

Rosanna feels a bit confident as she and Lauren head to the Southeast corner of the dungeon. Yeah, it may be a puzzle, but she's pretty sure she can be of some help in the alchemy lab. After all she’s had to come up with her own recipes for her baking show  _Nerdy Nummies._ She’s had to make pineapple pound cake, homemade churros, she’s even made cookies in the shapes of keys out of freaking cereal! She’s had lots of experience with measurements and combining ingredients. Plus she’s the alchemist. She must’ve gotten this role for a reason. 

_This shouldn’t be too difficult,_ she thinks.  
_Lauren seems pretty nice as well. I think we’ll have a good chance at solving this pretty quickly._

“Excuse me,” a voice from behind them asks.

The two women turn around to see John Douglass.

“Can I help you with your puzzle please?”

They look at each other and shrug. 

“Yes, of course,” Ro answers happily.   
_It’s always good to have an extra hand._

“Yeah, sure,” Lauren agrees.  
_As long as he’s not slacking off._

They approach the door and turn the handle. As they push the door inward, it gives a long, low squeak, sending shivers through the trio.

“Ooh,” Ro gasps shivering as they step inside.  
“I don’t know if I like this. This is so creepy!"

“Why does this give me  _Luigi’s Mansion_ vibes?” Lauren asks.

Green-flamed torches illuminate the cobblestone room just barely. There are shelves of vials, glass jars, bottles, bowls, you name it. Some of the shelves have doors on them which appear to be locked. To their left is a corner counter. On it is a candle, newly lit which gives them the creeps, an alchemy book upon a book stand, which is opened to a random set of pages, a wand, a small cauldron, a few instruments used for creating potions, and a scroll of parchment with ink on it. Lauren picks it up and reads it.

 

_This puzzle will require good eyes, cooperation, and a knowledge of measurements. You must use alchemy, magic, and incantations to create this key. Follow the steps below and it shall appear. I have decided to be kind to you; I have filled the cauldron with your first ingredient; mermaid water. But beware; should a measurement be even slightly off, one of you shall be killed._

 

“Killed?” Ro gasps.  
“No, I don’t want any of you to die.”

“Then we’d better get this right. What do you two want to do?”

“I can measure and combine them,” Ro volunteers.

“I’ll read it then,” Lauren decides.  
“John, you can help gather the ingredients.”

Lauren looks over the ingredients:

 

_1/2 cup of sulfur._  
_2 leaves of poison oak._  
_2 rat brains._  
_2 teaspoons of frog urine._  
_6 live cockroaches._  
_6 eyes of a newt._  
_3 teaspoons of viper venom._  
_2 cups of pixie dust.  
_ _A small vial of pig blood.  
_ _The heart of a scholar._

“Rat brains? Frog urine? Pig blood?” Lauren exclaims in disgust.  
“What kind of recipe for a key is this?"

_Certainly not a vegan one,_ she thinks.

Ro nearly gags as Lauren lists off some of the ingredients. She’s disgusted, but also sad.

_Those poor animals,_ she thinks, her heart aching.

“Okay, let’s get this done with,” John exclaims.  
“What’s first?”

Lauren looks at the recipe.

_“First take the 1/2 cup of sulfur and combine with the 2 cups pixie dust. Stir together for about thirty seconds, then crush in the mortar and pestle.”_

John looks around casually. He walks slowly.

“Hurry up,” Lauren exclaims.

“Will you relax?” he scoffs.  
“I know what I’m doing.”

He find the pixie dust. It’s a combination of rose-pink and silver sparkling magic that catches Ro’s attention.

“It’s so beautiful,” she gasps.

“Great,” Lauren says.  
“Now where’s the sulfur?”

“Calm down. I’ll get it.”

About a minute later, he returns with a jar of ground sulfur. Ro opens it and measures out 1/2 before placing it in the mortar and pestle. Then she measures out 2 cups of pixie dust. Crushing it in the mortar and pestle, some of the ground mixture floats out of it, up to her face, and into her nose. Suddenly she begins to rather strange, but also wonderful.

_What’s going on?_ she thinks.  
_Why do I feel so……giggly? And why does everything seem so….bright and colorful all of a sudden?_

And soon she begins to giggle.

“Ro?” Lauren asks.  
“What’s so funny?”

“I don’t know!” Ro exclaims in between giggles.  
“I just feel so….. happy!”

Surprised, and a bit worried, Lauren glances over the recipe, flipping the parchment over, and that’s when she finds it. On the back, all the way at the bottom, reads:

**_WARNING: GROUNDING THE PIXIE DUST AND SULFUR RUNS THE RISK OF THE MIXTURE ENTERING INTO ONE’S BODY, CAUSING EXTREME EUPHORIA, PLAYFULNESS, AND AFFECTION AS WELL AS HALLUCINATIONS, ESPECIALLY IN THOSE WHO ALREADY HAVE A HEART OF GOLD._ **

“Of course it does,” Lauren huffs in frustration.

From what she’s seen and heard, Ro is pretty much the most pure-hearted person on YouTube. After reading the warning, her behavior is of no surprise to Lauren.

“Well, can you still help mix the potion?”

“Oh, yes!” Ro gasps happily, jumping up and down with glee, as if she’d been offered the opportunity to ride a unicorn through a meadow of jasmine.

Lauren continues to read the recipe.

_“Carefully and slowly pour the mixture into the cauldron.”_

Happily, Ro dishes out the concoction into the cauldron.

“What’s next? What’s next?"

_“Take the two rat brains and place them in the mortar and pestle. Crush them until they are the consistency of paste.”_

Ro looks for the rat brains on the table.

“I don’t see them,” she says.

_Goddammit, John!_ Lauren thinks.

“Maybe they’re hiding!” Ro gasps.  
“Maybe it’s a game of hide-and-seek!"

She begins to look around the lab.

“Rat brains, come out, come out wherever you are!” she calls in a singsong voice.

“John, where are the rat brains?” Lauren asks, irritated.

“You didn’t tell me to get them!”

“I literally just said we needed rat brains!”

“I found them! I found them!” Ro squeals as she points to a jar on a shelf.  
“I win!"

Grabbing it she skips back to the counter and, with a pair of tongs, takes out two rat brains and crushes them into a paste, singing a Disney song all the while. 

_Is she always this cute, or is it just the sulfur and pixie dust?_ Lauren wonders.

Once Ro is finished, she turns to Lauren and, slightly rocking back and forth on her feet, waits for her to read the next instruction.

“ _Next take the two leaves of poison oak and place it in the mortar and pestle. Combine with rat brain paste and mix until it’s nice and even.”_

“They’re not here,” Ro exclaims, putting her hands on her hips.  
“Are they playing hide and seek TOO?”

“John!” Lauren yells.  
“2 leaves of poison oak.”

About half a minute later, he brings them over and places them in the mortar and pestle. Ro combines them evenly, still singing a Disney song. 

_“Take your newt eyes. Using an obsidian knife, make a small incision on the top layer and pull it back until the rest of the eye falls into the mortar and pestle. Repeat this for the other 5 eyes. Once finished, you should have at least 6 thin pieces that have the look and texture of rice paper. Set those aside._

Once again, the newt eyes are not present. Lauren yells at John.

“Will you relax?” John groans.   
“This isn’t life or death.”

“It said we’d be killed—!“

“Only if we measured inaccurately, and from the looks of things, Ro’s doing a pretty good job of that.”

_That doesn’t mean you get to slack off, Mr. Sass Pants!_

Lauren rolls her eyes as John gets out the newt eyes. Ro makes a small incision in each and pulls them away, giving a small “plop!” and a giggle every time one falls into the mortar and pestle. 

_“Next take your frog urine and pour it over the eyes. Let it sit for about five minutes whilst you work with the live cockroaches.”_

Wait. Did she read that right? Those cockroaches ARE alive? When she first read that, she thought it might’ve been a misprint or something. But nope. It’s not, apparently. She turns to John.

“Go get the cockroaches!”

Trembling he pulls out a jar of crawling and squirming cockroaches.

“Why did it have to be cockroaches?”John grumbles.  
“Why the MidRen? Why not maybe a carnival in the late 1970s or something?”

A vision of evil clowns chasing them fills in his mind, though, and he decides against it. He doesn’t want to have to think about the clown killings happening in the 1970s, let alone 2018.

He places the cockroach jar on the counter. Ro looks at it and clasps her heart.

“Aww! They’re so cute!” she says.

Lauren and John look at each other in disbelief. 

“It’s probably just the mixture,” John suggests as he pulls out a small vial of frog urine.

Ro pours the frog urine over the eyes as Lauren continues.

_“Take each cockroach and place a drop of viper venom on each. This should tranquilize it long enough. They take a piece from one of the eyes you pulled off and wrap it inside. Then drop it inside the cauldron before repeating the process with the other 5.”_

Ro’s not afraid of these little beasts. She’s already got one on her hand, and she’s petting it with her finger as if it were a puppy. It makes Lauren think of her dog Dexter and her heart aches at how much she misses him.

_Don’t worry, Dexter,_ she thinks.  
_We just need to finish this potion thing, free Joey, and then we can get the hell out of this place._

“Ro,” she tells her as John, actually on his own, what a shock, brings over the venom.  
“We gotta tranquilize them with the venom.”

This makes her gasp.

“What? No! I’ve already named them!”

She points to each one.

“That’s Brian, Mick, Keith, Bill, Charlie, and Ian.”

Lauren rolls her eyes. Ro is so cute, she’s not denying it, but they don’t have time for this. 

“You might wanna look away,” she warns Ro.

Reluctantly, she turns away as Lauren opens the venom and drops a bit onto the backs of all 6 of them, taking care that it doesn’t get on her. The second it hits the back, they fall motionless. When all six are tranquilized, Lauren wraps them in the eye film and drops them each into the potion. 

“Okay, you can look now.”

Ro turns around.

“Where did they go?” 

“Back to London,” Lauren answers sarcastically before reading the next step.

_“Pour the remaining venom into the mortar and pestle. Carefully crush into a mush before dumping into the potion.”_

Lauren, to be honest, is a little worried about Ro doing it, so she takes it into her hands and carefully crushes the eyes before pouring it into the cauldron.

“Okay, it says that we need the heart of a scholar,” Lauren reads.

_The heart of a scholar, huh?_ She looks over to John whose eyes grow as wide as saucers.

“Uh uh, missy. You’re not ripping my heart out,” he protests.

“Oh come on! It’d make you useful for once.”

“I AM useful!” 

“You keep waiting around for me to yell at you. You don’t even try to help with the potion.”

“YOU told ME that I was in charge of GATHERING ingredients, NOT combining them! Besides you didn’t even let me see the ingredients or read them all aloud.”

“You could have ASKED me to!”

“Um, guys,” Ro pipes up innocently.  
“What about this jar on the top shelf that says it contains scholar hearts?”

Lauren and John look over to find her on her tip toes *just* reaching the jar.

“Oh,” they both exclaim, feeling rather sheepish. 

John takes it down and hands it to Ro. To further make up for it, he volunteers to do this next step.

_“Take the heart and pig’s blood. Pour the blood over the heart. With your obsidian knife, cut the heart into small cubes, then places them into the potion."_

He immediately regrets volunteering. Pouring the blood on it, John feels like he’s turning green. Ro and Lauren watch on as he tries to hold back his inside whilst cutting an actual heart into pieces.

_Just get through this, John,_ he tells himself.  
_Just get through this one tiny thing and then you can go home to Erin and Klondike and Sundae and forehead jokes and lightswitch jokes and John Cena jokes. God, I miss the John Cena jokes already._

Once the heart is in cubes and in the potion, Lauren reads the last instruction.

_“The final step requires a lock of hair from a pure-hearted maiden,_ _salivary excretions from a scholar,_ _and a drop of blood from the creator of the potion. Then, as a trio, recite the following incantation thricely:_

_"Cum dicimus pienissima_

_contentionem spirituum alchimiae_

_Haec clavis ferreo et libera nos."_

“Thricely?” she asks.

“Three times,” John replies.

_Of course HE would know that,_ Lauren scoffs internally.

“Okay, this is easy,” John says.  
“I’m the scholar, you created the potion, and Ro?”

He’s not sure if he’s met such a sweeter and more innocent soul than she is. Definitely the pure-hearted maiden.

“I don’t speak this language though,” Lauren replies nervously.

“It’s Latin. Just follow my lead. Okay?”

She shrugs.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

Lauren’s a little nervous about having to prick her finger, but if it will save Joey, it’s a minor loss.

John runs over and gets a pair of shears.

“Ro,” he asks gently.  
“Can I borrow a lock of hair please?”

She nods eagerly. With one quick snip, he has a lock of her hair in his hands.

“Oh great gods and goddesses—!” Lauren begins, her voice nearly booming.

“What are you doing?” John asks her as if she’d just admitted she had a fungal disease.

“It makes it more fun,” she answers shrugging.

“Okay, whatever floats your boat,” he mumbles.

“Oh great gods and goddesses,” she begins again.  
“I have for you a lock of hair from a pure-hearted maiden,—“

She takes the lock of hair and drops it inside.

“—the salivary excretions of a scholar,—"

John creates a sort of sucking sound before spitting into the potion like a cowboy hitting a spittoon. 

“—and the blood of the creator of the potion.”

Grabbing the obsidian knife, John hands it to Lauren. Trembling, she aims it at the tip of her thumb. 

_When I was told I’d be coming to a party that took place in the MidRen, I did NOT think I’d be giving blood, especially to a damn potion._

“Oh God,” she whispers nervously.

“Just close your eyes and puncture,” John suggests.

“But it’s not sanitary.”

The potion begins to bubble aggressively as if the spirits are saying “Hello? We’re waiting for the blood sacrifice! Sometime before the Black Plague dies out would be nice!"

“A lot of things weren’t sanitary back then. Just prick your thumb!”

Closing her eyes, she jabs it at her thumb until she feels it puncture her skin. Opening her eyes, she finds a little trickle of blood. She takes her other hand and squeezes her thumb to form a pearl before letting it drop into the potion.

_Thank God! Now we just have to recite some sort of Latin mumbo-jumbo._

“Ready?” John asks.  
“We can go slow.”

“Are you calling me stupid?”

“You said you didn’t speak Latin!”

“Okay, let’s just do it.”

They take a collective breath before struggling through it.

 

 

_"Cum dicimus pienissima_

_contentionem spirituum alchimiae_

_Haec clavis ferreo et libera nos._

 

_"Cum dicimus pienissima_

_contentionem spirituum alchimiae_

_Haec clavis ferreo et libera nos._

 

_"Cum dicimus pienissima_

_contentionem spirituum alchimiae_

_Haec clavis ferreo et libera nos!”_

All of a sudden, there’s like a huge flash of green light and green smoke is shooting up from the cauldron and someone’s screaming, or maybe multiple people are, the three of them are screaming for sure. The trio covers their eyes. And then there’s a small pop and something clatters inside of the cauldron.

“Did we do it?” Ro asks.

Lauren looks inside and sure enough, there’s the key. 

“We did it!” Lauren exclaims grabbing it and holding it up.

The other two cheer along with her in relief. Now they’re finally getting out of this.

“Let’s get this back to Joey!” Lauren exclaims.

And they rush out of the alchemy lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Joey is set free. Time for them to leave, right?


	9. Pilfered Stallions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joey's free from the dungeon. Now they can go home, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also a new face appears.

Rosanna’s beginning to feel a little less euphoric from the concoction and more from the fact that they’ve done it. They’ve gotten the key and so have the others, who are now crowded over by Joey.

“There they are!” Phil exclaims. 

“Oh my Gosh!” Ro pants as she runs over and hugs Phil.  
“Are you all okay?”

“Of course. Our puzzle was pretty simple. Why?”

“You didn’t have a death clause?” Lilly asks.

“What do you mean?” Dan asks.

_A death clause? What kind of puzzles did THEY have?_

“Our puzzle said that if we did something wrong, we’d be killed.”

“So did ours,” Lauren exclaims.

“Ours did too!” Anna pipes up.

“Well, OURS didn’t,” Dan says.

“So wait,” Tessa pipes up incredulously.  
“The ONLY puzzle that didn’t have a death clause was taken by people who are both guys? I think that’s a little sketchy!”

Joey’s struck by those last few words. They’re too familiar to him.

“It could’ve just been a coincidence,” Phil argues.

“Right,” Tessa scoffs.

To her Dan and Phil are just a little bit suspicious right now. Part of her believes that they may have something to do with all of them being in this castle, but another part of her is wondering;  _is THAT really something Dan and Phil would be a part of?_

“Okay but guys,” Anna pipes up.  
“We have all four keys, right?”

A person from each group holds up their key.

“But which key is for which shackle?” Sean asks.

The rest of the group starts throwing out suggestions, but Tessa, being a rather perceptive Ravenclaw, is already a step ahead of the group.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tessa exclaims.  
“What if each shackle corresponds to a puzzle?”

“What the hell does that mean?” Dan exclaims.

“Look at the way Joey’s trapped. It’s in an X formation. So, Anna, you and I take the top left shackle because our puzzle was in the Northwest corner.”

The group is a bit confused at first, until suddenly it clicks in Lilly's head.

“Wait, I think I know what she means,” she exclaims as she goes for the top right shackle.  
“Dan, you and Phil have the bottom left shackle. Ro, your group’s got the bottom right.”

After fumbling around with the keys a bit, sure enough, the shackles click open and Joey drops down free.

“Thank you!” he gasps as Ro runs over to give him a hug like the cute little cinnamon roll she is. 

“Do you remember how you even got there?” Tessa asks.

Joey shakes his head.

“I was just in this, like, Victorian mansion and then I felt something hit me in the back of the head. C’mon, let’s go.”

He tries to walk, but finds himself stumbling. He feels light-headed and he is starving. Just before he collapses, Ro and Dodie grab ahold of him and support him.

“You’re not looking too good,” John comments as they walk back up the stairs and into the foyer of the castle.

_Thanks,_ Joey thinks sarcastically.  
 _As if I didn’t know that already._

“Okay, where to now?” Joey asks.

“The carriage,” Lilly suggests.  
“That could take us back.”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Lauren exclaims.  
"I am so ready to go home."

_Thank God. We’re gonna get the hell out of this place. I won’t have to interact with anyone. I can just binge-watch “Yuri on Ice” again,_ Dan thinks as they step outside.

After a short walk, they find the carriage, but…..

“Where the eff are the horses?” Lilly exclaims.

“Did someone steal them?” Ro asks.

“Who cares? I’m getting out of this one way or another,” John scoffs.  
“Sean, come in front with me. Everyone else, get in.”

He doesn’t care what it takes to get them out, but they’re gonna get out of this wretched place.

“What are you doing?” Tessa yells as she and Lilly grasp onto the back of the carriage

He and Sean take ahold of the sides and start pushing against the ground.

“Are you guys crazy?!” Lauren exclaims. 

“Holy shit! They’re actually trying to pull the carriage,” Anna adds in disbelief. 

Dan looks out the window and sure enough, John and Sean are groaning heaving and pulling against the wooden things that secure the horses in place, honestly he has no clue what they're called, but he is so glad John didn’t ask him to pull the carriage. He would’ve dislocated his arms within the first few——

_Snap! Pop!_

The carriage starts to wobble and then falls against the grass, bringing along with it nine screaming YouTubers. Well, seven, after Tessa and Lilly jump ship.

“What just happened?” Tessa asks when she’s recovered from the shock.

“I think two of the wheels broke,” Sean exclaims.

He and John rush to the carriage and help pull out the others. Tessa and Lilly come to their aid.

“Is everyone okay?” Sean asks as they pull the last one out.  
“Anything severely hurt?”

“Mostly just my self-esteem,” Dan answers.   
“Oh wait. That’s everyday, bro, amirite?”

Externally, Dan’s laughing dryly. Internally he’s cringing so hard as he wonders why the hell he said that.

_Note to self: NEVER say that again._

But he doesn’t really have time to store that in his memory bank because suddenly something zooms past him, grazing his nose slightly, before hitting a nearby bush.

“Freeze! Don’t move a muscle!” a voice barks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deeply apologize for that cringy joke.
> 
> Next Chapter:  
> A new face appears, we learn what the hell is going on, and surprise, surprise, people have to die.


	10. Artemis' Exposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new challenger appears and we learn about the impact the Dark Prince has had on the town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also known as the "Mandatory Legend of When Shit Hit the Fan, How Everything Went to Shit, and How to Fix Shit."
> 
> Oh, and death shit.

Dan whirls around and puts his hands in the air as the figure approaches, revealing to be a girl of about sixteen, but her voice sounds more like a twenty year old.

“Who are you, and who are you working for?” she interrogates aggressively, pointing her bow, with another arrow already prepped, at each of them.

“We—we were invited here,” Ro exclaims.

“I was trapped here,” Joey adds.

“I really don’t want to be here,” Dan squeaks, trembling in fright.

Her eyes narrow in suspicion.

“Who are you?” she asks again.  
“Did the Dark Prince send you?”

The Dark what now?

“We…..have no clue what the hell you’re talking about,” Anna exclaims, extremely confused.  
"We just got here, like, half an hour ago, so.........yeah."

“The Dark Prince?” she asks, now concerned.  
“You….don’t know?”

“Nope, not a clue,” Tessa exclaims.  
“We’re from 2018."

The girl’s eye widened. 

“Come with me,” she says urgently, ushering them back towards the castle.  
“Quickly! We don’t have much time.”

* * *

The girl leads them into a sort of parlor, reminiscent of the one from the Victorian manor, except a few torch chandeliers and torches lighten up the room, very clearly strangely enough. 

“This is pretty sweet,” Lilly comments.

“Very cozy,” Ro adds.

“Seems like a fire hazard to me,” Dan exclaims, eying all the torches. 

“Okay, can you please tell us what's going on?” Dodie asks the girl worried as they all sit on the couches.  
“Who are you?”

“My name’s Artemis,” she introduces.  
“I’m a Huntress. Since you don’t seem to know about our little situation here, I’ll get you up to speed.”

 

* * *

 

_“Believe it or not, this kingdom was rather prosperous and lively. A lot of people were friendly and helped one another. Trade was bustling and poverty was nearly non-existent. I lead a group of huntresses-in-training and my father was a huntsman in the royal hunters’ guild. He taught me everything I know about hunting, and we were inseparable._

_“Then one day, the Dark Prince showed up and everything went to Hell. He casted curse after curse and spell after spell. But he was sneaky. He made the town believe they were doing this to themselves. He turned friends against friends, siblings against siblings, children against their own parents. He even turned my father against me. Such betrayals have forced us to fight for ourselves._

_“Many months prior, he trapped this town in time to give him more control over us. It has been nighttime for months. He placed several people under spells, in preparation for a spell that will give him and his master, the Cursed God, unconquerable power and total control over time and space.”_

* * *

“Let me guess,” Joey pipes up knowingly and a bit irritatedly.  
“He wants ten lives from the modern day for his spell?”

“Are you a warlock?” Artemis gasps.

“No, just going through the motions.”

“Oh. But yes, ten lives are needed."

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lilly exclaims.  
“So that means all of us are--”

“In grave danger. Yes. And because you have arrived, we have a double-edged sword at our hands,” Artemis says somberly.  
“The day and night cycle curse was broken upon your arrival. However the spell he has been preparing for will be at its peak come morning time, meaning that the Dark Prince and the Cursed God will have all of time and space in his grasp."

“So we’re dead then!” Dan exclaims as he throws up his hands.  
“Great."

He's thinking of all of the things he hasn't done, all the people he hasn't met, all the anime he hasn't watched, and all the OTPs he hasn't shipped. If he dies, there's probably no Tumblr or Netflix wherever he's going. How the hell is he supposed to look up  _Yuri on Ice_ fan art or fan art of him and Phil on unrealistically-buff bodies if he's dead?

“Not quite. There is an orb of power hidden inside of that plaque.”

She points to above the fireplace. How none of them had noticed it before is unknown. 

“The orb is rumored to render him powerless AND undo the curses."

It reminds Joey of the gem map, which may not necessarily be a good thing.

“What are those little circular indents?” Anna asks, pointing and motioning a sort of semi-circle at the plaque.

“Those,” Artemis answers.  
“Are for holding the medallions that unlock the orb.”

“And let me guess,” Joey pipes up bitterly.  
“To get a medallion, we have to vote two people into a challenge and one of them has to die, right?”

“How—?”

“Going through the goddamn motions!”

Joey puts his face in his hands. He is incredibly frustrated and terrified. He’s already had to do this twice in a row, why is this happening again? He feels someone rubbing his back. Looking up, he sees Ro comforting him. 

While she’s doing this, she’s putting together the pieces of the puzzle that she has been working on for over a year. Is THAT what happened to Lauren and Justine and Alex and all the others? Were they KILLED in another time? But then why does Joey keep disappearing for such a long time? She doesn’t want to believe it, but the possibility that he may be in connection with their deaths lingers in her head.

“But why me?” Joey asks Artemis.  
“Why did he chain me up?”

“That is a question I do not know the answer to.”

“Wait, so are people really gonna die?” Lauren asks.  
“Like legit die?”

“I don’t want anyone to die,” Dodie pipes up.

“I just wanna go home,” Dan squeaks.

“I’m afraid there's no other option but to go through the death challenges,” Artemis answers somberly and ruefully.  
"Unless those medallions are recovered, you’ll be stuck here forever.”

“Well, if that’s the only way, I’m in,” Lilly says decidedly.  
“We’re not gonna accomplish anything by just waiting around.”

“That’s true,” Ro agrees.  
“Very true."

“Fine, let’s just get this over with,” Joey groans.  
“What’s the first challenge?”

“THAT,” Artemis says.  
“Is to be revealed once the votes have been casted and the guests selected, at the request of the first lieutenant.”

“How are we supposed to decide who goes into the challenge if we don’t even know what the challenge is?” Anna exclaims. 

“That is up to you. Discuss it amongst yourselves.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Fingers are being pointed and two are selected to take part in the first death challenge.


	11. The First Votes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests must submit their votes to decide which two will go head-to-head in the first challenge of death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, people are gonna die. 
> 
> Hey, btw, if you don't have an Ao3 account that you can use to follow this story, I have a YouTube Channel where I post videos of when I've posted new chapters!
> 
> Channel: LadieLydKyd

Anna feels uneasy about this whole thing. People are voting in each other to potentially DIE. She didn’t come here for that. She came here to party. 

Lauren, on the other hand, is determined. She knows EXACTLY who she wants to attempt the challenge. In fact, she know that they NEED to attempt the challenge. If they want to prove that they're not just gonna slack off, they need to hustle.

“We need to pick someone who hasn’t done anything,” she whispers to Ro and Joey.  
“John barely helped out with the potion puzzle. I think we should vote him in.”

“But we’re talking about life and death,” Ro protests.   
“What if he dies?”

“Someone is gonna die regardless. Besides he needs to prove himself.”

John’s over by Sean, Dodie, and Phil. Overhearing this he walks over to the group.

“So you want me dead, is that it?” he exclaims incredulously.

“No, but you need to prove yourself. You barely helped out with the potion puzzle!”

“What about Ro? She was distracted at times.”

“She was under the influence of freaking pixie dust and sulfur! Of COURSE she’d be distracted! But you have no excuse!”

He feels like he’s being victimized. He didn’t know this would happen. He didn’t know he was gonna have to vote people in to die. He just thought they were gonna get to go home after that. 

On the inside, he knows that Lauren is right; he needs to prove himself. He wants to show that he can be useful to the group. But at the same time, he really doesn't wanna die. All he can do, at this point, is plead his case.

* * *

While John’s talking with Lauren's group, his group is also having a discussion.

“I think we should vote Lilly in,” Dodie pipes up softly as she looks over at her and Dan discussing strategy and who to vote in.  
“She was being stubborn and wouldn’t listen to me when I told her to tilt the map towards me, even though I KNEW that would bring the key closer to the exit."

“But she still did something,” Sean argues.  
“I heard from Lauren that John didn’t really even help with the potion puzzle.”

“But it sounds like Lauren’s got that covered,” Phil adds.  
“I think maybe we should vote Lilly in so that he’s not going in by himself.”

He’s heard about how adamant Lauren has been about voting John in. It wouldn’t be fair for him to be voted in twice. He’d certainly die then, wouldn’t he?

“Let’s vote for Lilly then,” Sean agrees reluctantly.

“Alright, everyone,” Artemis exclaims.  
“It’s time to cast your votes.”

They turn towards her to find that, on a table, she’s laid out eleven stacks of tarot cards, each with a person’s illustration, their name and role listed below.

“Voting is simple,” she continues.  
“One by one, you’ll come up to me and pick the card of whom you wish to attempt the final challenge. I shall then draw two, and those picked shall be the ones to compete.”

Lauren is first up. She scans the cards until she finds The Scholar. She takes a card from the deck and hands it to Artemis before returning to her seat.

Dodie is up next. She finds The Archer card deck and hands one to Artemis. It really annoyed, in fact still does annoy, her that Lilly wouldn’t listen to her contributions and, because of that, she’s not sure if Lilly’s a good addition to the team. She wants to be sure. If Lilly comes back alive, Dodie’s willing to trust her a bit more. Plus Lilly looks strong and determined. If anyone is going to win a challenge, Dodie is fairly certain it's her.

Ro has a lot of trouble picking the card she wants. She really doesn’t want ANY of these people to die. And it’s even worse that none of them know what the first challenge even is, so how is she supposed to vote someone in who would be good at the challenge, whatever the heck it is? Closing her eyes, she picks up a random card and hands it to Artemis, not bothering to open her eyes until she’s turned around. That way, if that card gets picked, she won’t know that it’s hers.

Tessa, like Dodie and Lauren, doesn’t have much trouble with deciding who to pick. Dan and Phil seem slightly suspicious. They were THE ONLY ONES whose puzzle wasn’t lethal in anyway. But who is more likely to be involved? 

_Phil seems too much of a goody-good._

She hands Artemis a Plague Doctor card.

* * *

 Once all the votes have been casted, Artemis shuffles the cards before selecting the first ones. Everyone’s stomachs are in knots, but John’s especially. Lauren really bad-talked him to her group, so his odds of his name merely getting passed over are fairly low.

_Please, whatever happens, don’t let her pick me. Please. I’ll work harder next time. I promise. Just DON’T let her pick me!_

Artemis takes out a card and takes a look at the guests, trying to see who is who. Everyone’s heart skips a beat as she flips it over. 

“John,” she announces.

His heart sinks. Doom fills his body. Lauren glares at him and his stomach churns when their eyes meet, but not in the “butterflies-in-the-stomach” kind of way. More of a “Holy-shit-I’m-gonna die” kind of way. The universe is definitely on Lauren’s side. He’s just hoping that his opponent is weak. 

He looks around at the group, trying to determine who would be someone he’d most prefer going up against. Lauren would probably work hard to get revenge on him for not helping. Sean? Certainly not. Lilly? She looks pretty tough. He eyes the two sweet ones; Ro and Dodie. They definitely look pretty weak, or at the very least, if not weak, they’d be too sweet to let him die. 

_Yeah,_ he thinks.  
_They’d be preferable._

He turns back to Artemis, his stomach clenching as she flips over the second card. 

“Lilly.”

Lilly’s heart does a front flip. She’s confused and terrified. Why would someone send her into a death challenge? She’s seen horror movies. She knows minorities are usually the first to die. But she tries to keep herself calm. 

John on the other hand feels slightly defeated. He just hopes that the challenge is something he’d be good at. Maybe a grammar challenge or something.

“You ready?” he asks Lilly, trying to shove down his fear.

She shrugs casually.

“Let’s do this,” she proclaims decidedly.

“Everyone please follow me,” Artemis tells them. 

She leads them out of the dining room and towards certain death for one of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:
> 
> John and Lilly prepare to face each other and we meet the first lieutenant.


	12. Osiris and the Target Range

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet the former head admiral of the royal guard, and learn that fortune is not in someone's favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are these chapters too short?

John tries to get near Lauren and Ro as Artemis leads them outside, meaning it’s probably not gonna be a mental challenge but rather a physical one; he feels like he’s probably screwed, and he wants to make sure there’s no hard feelings between him, Lauren, and Ro.

“Hey,” he says in a resigned manner.  
“In case I don’t make it, I just wanted to say….I’m sorry for not doing more to help back in the alchemy lab.”

Lauren looks at him. His eyes give off a dark sincerity.

“Thanks,” she responds kind of coldly. 

Ro takes a hold of his hand and squeezes it.

“Just do your best, John. That’s all you can do."

He wants to do his best, but his best may not be enough to get him past the challenge, whatever it is. It’s either give it EVERY ATOM IN HIS BODY AND THEN SOME that he’s got and survive, or give it all he’s got and die. And he’s really hoping it’s not the latter. 

Artemis leads them to a training ground just outside of the castle. Three guards are waiting there; two of them look young and inexperienced. But there’s one who’s wearing bronze armor. 

“Evening, Admiral,” Artemis says casually as if they were out on a nighttime stroll.

He turns towards the group. Immediately, Joey’s eyes are drawn to the medallion on his breast plate. Engraved on it is a bow and arrow, and his mind forms a theory on what the challenge is gonna be. 

“Everyone,” she says.  
“This is Osiris. He’s the head admiral of the royal guard. Or at least, he was."

“Artemis,” the admiral rasps warmly as he hobbles towards them.  
“Is this the group you told me about earlier?”

She nods.

“I see. So, who are the challengers?”

Lilly, without hesitation, steps forward. John takes a step forward, his fingers trembling as they leave Ro’s.

“Good luck,” Ro whispers to him.  
“I believe in you."

“Ah,” Osiris exclaims.  
“A very strong adversary.”

He gestures to Lilly.

“I can tell this one has a soldier’s heart.”

He turns to John and stares at him for a brief time.

“This one has……skin."

_Thanks for the confidence boost,_ John thinks in sarcasm.

“Now, have either of you ever had the honor of practicing with a bow and arrow?”

A bow and arrow? John can’t recall any such time. Lilly’s having trouble as well.

“I see by your faces you are inexperienced. Good. That means we may have a fair challenge.”

He hobbles, facing the field.

“Do you see those targets?”

The two look in the direction he is pointing. Sure enough, by the young, inexperienced soldiers, are two targets.

“These have been made with the last of our materials. We need your help to test them. The targets are currently set at 25 paces away. You must hit the target in the center, using the bows and arrows we shall provide you. Once you have made the first mark, your target shall be moved to 50 paces away, and then 100 paces away. The first to make all three shots in the middle will be given this medallion.”

He holds the medallion up, still attached to his breast plate.

“And whoever loses?” John asks timidly.

Osiris glares at him somberly.

“Let us then hope that your bodies are made of steel.”

Neither of them like the sound of that, but Lilly feels she may have an advantage. She WAS given the role of the Archer, after all, but decides she shouldn’t get too cocky quite yet.

“Soldiers!” the admiral calls.  
“Bring these two their quivers and bows.”

They each receive a bow made from what looks to be bronze medal.

"I've actually got my own," Lilly adds.  
"I could just--"

“Nonsense! These are our finest beginner bows and arrows.”

"I mean, I trained under Robin Hood, but you do you, boo," she shrugs, taking the bow and quiver.

“Wait,” Anna pipes up.  
“So the rest of us have to WATCH?”

Osiris hobbles, turning to her.

“I would prefer witnesses outside of the guard to watch for legitimacy.”

Legitimacy? Whatever, this is already weird enough. Anna decides not to push it further.

Once Lilly and John are able to figure out how their bows work, Osiris clears his throat.

“Now, take an arrow out of the quiver on your back and place it in position. On my ‘draw,’ you shall set it to shoot."

They both load their arrows in.

“Draw!” Osiris yells.

They raise their bows.

“And……….”

Lilly and John glance over at each other, at the ground, at the targets, everywhere. This is terrifying to them. If what Artemis said is true, one of them is going to die.

“FIRE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> John and Lilly go head-to-head in an archery challenge. The winner will get the medallion, but will also be given another task that may just leave a weight on their shoulders for the rest of the night.


	13. Bullseye!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Lilly compete to shoot a bullseye target three times. The winner will survive, but may also be tasked with a fate potentially worse than the loser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe the challenge chapters will be longer. I dunno.

Once Osiris calls it, all hell breaks loose. Lilly, without hesitation, shoots her first arrow. It grazes just above the target. Without even thinking about the quiver, she reaches in and pulls out another arrow before loading the bow, positioning it, shooting it, and repeating the process. For some reason, this feels so natural to her. 

_I’m like freaking Katniss Everdeen! I just need a buff baker man and a buff hunter man and I'm good!_

John, meanwhile, feels awkward holding the bow. This isn’t what he’s good at, not even a little. His first arrow barely travels 5 feet and the target is more than fifty feet away. But on the bright side, it seems like this would be difficult even for someone with Lilly's skills. There’s no way either of them are gonna———

“Move it back!” 

Osiris calls it out. Glancing to his left and then just a bit forward, he sees, in the distance, the two soldiers moving Lilly’s target back further, an arrow right in the center. His heart begins to pound. He’s gotta catch up and fast. Who knows when she’ll send another one into the center?

The rest of the group is too stunned to say anything. Lauren looks exceptionally unsurprised as John fumbles through his quiver to pick out an arrow. Ro’s heart is pounding in fear as she sees him struggle. Joey has a look of doomed resignation on his face. 

_The third year in a row. The third freaking year in a row that this happens! Why is it me and my friends? Can it be someone else? Just for one goddamn year?_

Dodie is pursing her lips, but at the same time, rather impressed with Lilly. Maybe she DID misjudge her after all. Maybe she’s just stubborn sometimes, but really IS a team player.

Tessa’s beginning to wish she really WAS a witch. She could use apparition to teleport all of them back to 2018. 

_But wait, does apparition work for traveling to different time periods or just locations? I'll have to tweet Rowling about it when I get back to 2018._

As she thinks this through, John finally manages to position his bow properly. Aiming it, he takes a deep breath and lets go of the arrow, sending it flying and hitting the center. 

_I….I did it! I actually hit the target! Maybe I’m NOT screwed._

Lilly tries to block it out as she hits the top of her target, but in her mind, she’s panicking a bit. If he surpasses her, she’s dead. She honestly doesn’t want him to die, but she doesn’t have a death wish either. 

Praying to nearly every deity she can think of, she sends the arrow flying, hitting the bullseye.

The two soldiers move her target back fifty paces. Now her target is over 200 feet away. How the hell is anyone supposed to hit that is beyond her, but if she can’t hit that, maybe John wouldn’t be able to either. 

_Maybe people in the MidRen have mad archery skills and that’s why they places their targets so damn far away!_

* * *

 

John feels pretty confident about his skills now that he’s hit the first target. He’s gotten the hang of the bow and arrow slightly. He’s got it set up properly. He’s gonna get the three bullseyes, make it through the rest of the challenges, and then go home and see his dogs and Erin and the forehead jokes and the lightswitch jokes and the John Cena jokes.

_Do it for the John Cena jokes, John. You just need two more shots, prove yourself, survive the rest of the challenges, and then get back home to the dogs and Erin._

He shoots a few more arrows, but then finally, he makes another hit, and the admiral calls for them to move his target back. He suddenly feels a sense of relief. He's going to go home! He's gonna survive this challenge, then the others, and then he'll get to go home.

_ I'll be home in a few hours, Erin. _

* * *

Not too long after they move Lilly’s target back, she hears Osiris call out to the soldiers to move John’s target back. They’re both neck and neck and the pressure to hit this bullseye from over 200 feet away is on big time. Her heart is pounding nearly a mille a second. What happens if NEITHER of them hit the bullseye? Do they both die? Does everyone get killed? Are they stuck in a loop of archery forever?!?

_Okay, calm down, Lilly,_ she tells herself.  
_Worrying isn’t productive. And productivity not only lives in your home, but it is with you on-the-go. You’ve got this, girl. Just take deep breaths and focus on yourself._

She takes a few deep breaths, closes her eyes, pulls it back, and then lets it fly. 

Time seems to slow down as she loads an arrow into the bow just in case. Seconds turn to minutes. Minutes turn to hours. Hours turn to days as she and the others hold their breaths, waiting for the call. 

And then…..

“It’s a hit!” one of the soldiers calls out.

At that moment, she feels a wave of relief wash through her. She’s not going to die. She’s going to go back home and see Scarbro and Brogan and Taylor and Colleen. 

She turns around to Osiris. 

“You are indeed a strong soldier,” he comments, reaching for his breast plate and unclipping the medallion.  
“The medallion is yours.”

As soon as that medallion touches her hands, she then realizes what that means and her heart sinks.

* * *

John, hearing the call, turns around to see Osiris handing Lilly the medallion. His heart falls as the two soldiers bring his target closer to the group, thinking about what this means. 

He’s failed. 

He’s failed Lauren and proven that he’s useless to the team. 

He’s failed Ro and her confidence in his ability to overcome the odds and succeed.

He’s failed Erin and Klondike and Sundae, his loving family who, he realizes, will never see him again. 

But worst of all, he’s failed himself. He was so sure, even for a fleeting moment, that he had a chance at winning. But the odds were stacked against him from the moment he decided to stop helping. 

Normally he doesn’t cry, but this time, tears begin to well up in his eyes as the soldiers roughly push him against his target, his upper back violently slamming up against it. One goes behind him and, with a sharp wire, ties his hands tight around the pole that supports the target. It digs into his hands, making them bleed.

“Please, no,” he squeaks quietly through tears.  
“Give me another chance, please!"

Hearing his pleas, Lauren, in spite of her putting him in this, begins to regret her choice of putting his card in. He’s a scholar, not a sportsman, and from what she’s heard, he doesn’t seem like a sporty type. But how was she to know that the challenge would be a physical one?

Lilly is also trying to keep herself calm. All of a sudden, she feels her bow back in her hand.

“Miss?” Osiris asks.  
“Are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” she replies, both confused and afraid to know the answer.

A brief pause passes before he responds.

“To execute him, of course.”

Lilly is flabbergasted. SHE has to SHOOT John?

“No!” Ro gasps, trying to hold back her tears, before Joey grabs a hold of her, comforting her as she did for him. 

“Wait. I have to shoot HIM?” Lilly asks, trying to make sense of the whole situation. 

_ So I win, and now I have to KILL John?  _

Seeing it would be bad enough, but the fact that she's being GIVEN the task of killing him is hell. Lilly's never killed anyone before. She's not one for killing. She prefers peace and love, not slaughtering her friends. 

“It’s tradition. The weaker soldier is killed by the victor.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“I’m afraid not."

Of course she doesn’t. A small tear falls down her face, but she’s quick to dismiss it to herself as sweat as she preps her bow.

“Draw!”

Hands trembling, she lifts the bow to the side of her face, making sure it’s precisely on his heart. If she has to kill him, she wants to do it as soon as possible and put him out of his misery.

“And….."

“I’m sorry, John,” she whispers ruefully.

* * *

“FIRE!”

Time seems to slow down as the arrow speeds towards John’s heart. He tries to put his thoughts to rest and just focus on the last moments of his life. But he doesn’t have time as the arrow pierce his heart.

Feeling as though the arrow is tearing it in half, he cries out in pain as blood first drops, then trickles, and then streams out of his body and onto the grass. 

_Erin, Klondike, Sundae, Mom, Dad……I’m sorry._

He sees them all flash through his mind, knowing it’s the last time he’ll ever see them. Soon he begins to feel light-headed and his vision begins to turn blurry as darkness and silence begin to overtake him. And then finally it grows silent and dark forever.

* * *

Ro can’t look as John’s head falls to his chest, his body falling limp against the target. She's trembling at the mere presence of death. She doesn’t want to believe it, but he’s really dead.

_Is this what’s going to happen to seven or eight more of us? Just to get these medallions? This isn’t fair! We all just came here to have fun with friends and it’s turned into a murder fest._

“I’m so sorry,” Osiris says sincerely.   
“But it had to be done.”

Dodie tries to hold back her tears, turning to Phil for a hug. She barely knew him, but it’s never a happy time seeing anyone die, let alone be brutally executed. And she has a feeling it’s only going to get worse from here on out. 

“We must be going now,” Artemis states breaking the silence.   
“Come on, everyone. Let’s head back to the parlor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> John is dead, and the first medallion has been earned. Everyone is beginning to feel the gravity of their situation hit them. But before they've even had a chance to rest for long, a new challenger approaches.


	14. A New Challenger Appears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group attempts to let this all sink in and process when a new face leads them to a maze of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm taking an online course for the summer, so I don't know how often I'll get to post until late July. But I have written a *little* bit in advance.
> 
> Also, spot the pop culture reference.

The whole group is in a state of shock and it’s starting to hit them that this isn’t a game. This isn’t fake. This is very real. People are actually going to die just so they can get these medallions. 

“I can’t believe we just watched John get killed,” Phil gasps.

“I can’t believe I had to shoot him,” Lilly huffs tiredly as she flops down on one of the couches. 

Ro and Joey come in behind Dodie last. Ro is in a state and Joey is trying to console her. Artemis, concerned, goes over to them.

“Is she alright?” she asks softly.

Sniffling, Ro looks up at Artemis with her soft, brown eyes. 

“This is really happening, isn’t it?” she squeaks.  
"People are really going to die, aren't they?" 

“I’m afraid so,” Artemis sighs.   
“All we can do is hold out as long as we can."

Joey’s debating either sending Ro into the next challenge so that she won’t have to watch the others die or holding onto and defending her as much as possible to get her out of this alive, heavily leaning towards the latter. He and Ro have done so many collabs together; they’ve made cotton candy out of Jolly Ranchers, they’ve combined and tasted every cake flavor possible, they’ve made geode cupcakes. She’s one of the sweetest people Joey has ever met. If there’s one person he wants to make it out alive for sure, it’s Ro.

“Okay,” Lilly sighs as she holds out her hand.  
“We have one medallion. What’s next?”

All of a sudden, there’s a tap-tap-tapping on the glass behind them. A couple of people give a few shrieks, Ro included. The group turns around to find a short girl of about 13 or so waving through the window.

“Oh hell no!” Lilly exclaims, backing away from the window.

She’s seen enough horror movies to know that kids plus murder scenario equals stay the eff away! She tries to back as far away from the window as possible. 

“Hello?” Dodie asks cautiously as she approaches the window.

_Okay, it’s your funeral, Dodie,_ Lilly thinks.

Dodie slowly moves her face close to the window. Just before her nose touches the glass, the girl darts off. Immediately the group runs outside to try and chase her down, but…

“Guys, there’s a note!” Tessa calls.   
“There’s a note by the window.”

Everyone crowds over by Tessa.

“Where did you get it?” Sean asks.

“I think she dropped it,” Lauren exclaims. 

Tessa unfolds the note and reads:

 

_One down and more to go. I wonder who will be next on the chopping block. Since you’re so adamant about defeating me, I suggest you start looking for the second medallion. Find the girl who caught your attention and you’ll be lead to, for some of you, a familiar face._

“Wait,” Rosanna exclaims, who has recovered from her tears.  
“So there are more of us?”

“I thought we were the only ones who were lured here,” Anna says.  
“I didn’t think there were others.”

Did this "dark prince" kidnap more than just the eleven of them?

“Who could this 'familiar face' be?” Lilly asks.

“I dunno, but we better start looking,” Joey exclaims.  
“We only have until sunrise.”

“Okay, but where is this girl? I don’t see her anywhere.”

The group looks around the castle grounds. They’re searching, but they don’t have much light. All of a sudden, Dodie cries out.

“She’s here!”

Everyone scrambles towards her and sure enough, it’s the girl. But then as soon as they make eye contact, she gasps and runs off. 

“No, wait, come back!” Ro exclaims. 

“Why does everyone run?”

“It’s probably cuz of me. Sorry,” Dan says dryly. 

Immediately after, they dash off. They’ve got a pretty decent distance and they’re closing in on her when she takes out an ear of corn, throws it on the ground, and smoke begins to appear before taking a sharp left, heading into a corn maze.

“Oh shit!” Anna coughs.  
“What is this?”

“Oh God!” Dan exclaims.  
“It smells like….skunk spray and blood.”

He covers his eyes, hoping to simply wait it out.

* * *

While the others are distracted, Tessa is the one who breaks off from the crowd and heads into the maze to try to track this girl down. She’s doing pretty good until she makes it to the center of the maze. There are tons of paths all in various directions and she couldn’t see which one the girl went down. 

She tries jumping to see if she can see the end of the maze, but that proves fruitless. After multiple tries and trying to rack her brain for another idea, she decides to head back to get the others. But she finds herself so distracted that she doesn’t realize——

_Thump!_

Someone was already coming her way.

“Oh Gosh!” Rosanna exclaims.  
“I’m so sorry, Tessa!”

“It’s fine.”

“Where did the girl go?”

“I don’t know. I got to this circular center and there’s like a ton of possible pathways.”

_This is a conundrum,_ Ro thinks.

“Should we try to find this girl ourselves?” Tessa asks.  
“Maybe we’ll get ahead of the others and we’ll save time.”

“That might actually be a good idea.”

The two try to head back into the maze, but their dresses are a bit big and long. 

“Why couldn’t we have gotten roles that didn’t require long dresses and skirts?” Tessa groans as she feels her priestess dress dragging on the muddy ground. 

“Clothing wasn’t exactly functional for women back then, I guess,” Ro shrugs.

Tessa and Ro, finally hitching up their skirts, make their way into the center.

“Where to first?” Ro asks.

“Maybe we should go left to right,” Tessa suggests.  
"You know, kinda scale the pathways."

And the two head off into the first path.

* * *

As soon as the smoke clears, Joey’s first thoughts are  _Is everyone okay?_ and  _Is everyone here?_

“Is anyone hurt?” he asks.

“Not really,” Anna coughs.  
“Just a little smoke got in my lungs, I think.”

“Wait, where are Ro and Tessa?” Sean exclaims  
“Did they run off?”

“Goddammit!” Lilly exclaims. 

“I think they did.”

Why does everyone run off in this kind of scenario? Lilly knows that equals automatically being murdered.

“Where could they have gone?” Phil asks.

“Looks like the only logical way is through the corn maze,” Dan answers.

“Let’s go,” Joey exclaims as they dash off. 

* * *

Meanwhile Ro and Tessa have tried nearly every pathway, except for the one on the very right.

“This has to be the way,” Ro exclaims.  
“Come on.”

She pulls Tessa through. All the while, there’s a query in Tessa’s mind that’s itching to be vocalized.

“You know Dan and Phil, right?” she asks Ro.

“Well, I’ve baked with them once, so I guess that counts.”

Tessa takes a moment to listen, making sure no one can hear them. She brings her voice down to a near-whisper.

“I still think it’s really sketchy that they were the only ones whose puzzle didn’t have a death threat hanging over them. Do you think they could be behind this?”

“You know, I’m honestly not sure. Anything seems to be fair game. Like, I didn’t think Joey would have any connection to the others dying, but I think he does.”

“Dying? What do you mean?”

“Justine, Sierra, Lauren, Alex, Liza,” Ro lists off.  
“All of those people who went missing, I think they died because of the parties Joey invited them to.”

“Do you think he could be in league with this……dark prince?”

“I can’t say for sure, but he knows how the process of getting the medallions works. He’s been through something like this before at least once, so I can’t rule it out, as much as I don’t want to believe it.”

Finally they emerge….into another circle with five more paths to test out.

“You’re kidding me,” Tessa groans.

This is not what she imagined herself doing at this party. She's was really hoping for some new  _Harry Potter_ fans to geek out with and maybe some good food. 

“Let’s just repeat the process,” Ro says determined.  
“We’ll find her, I’m sure of it."

And they take the first path on the left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Tessa and Ro seek out the girl, the rest of the group seek out Tessa and Ro, and they run into a familiar face.


	15. A Wild YouTuber Appears!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Tessa and Ro search for the girl, the rest of the group searches for Tessa and Ro in the cornfield maze. Phil and Dodie show a bit of chemistry for one another, while Ro finds a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm also in the process of writing other parts of this fanfic. And a thread of an idea has been sewn into my thoughts; season 4 fanfic, maybe?

Meanwhile, Joey and Anna are leading the group through the maze and they come across the circle. 

“Oh God!” Sean groans.  
“These jester tights are tightening on my downstairs.”

Dan looks at him as if he told them he was pregnant.

“Yeah, we really didn’t need to know that."

“Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!” Joey groans when he sees the five paths.   
“How are we supposed to figure out which way’s the right way?”

“Let’s split up,” Phil suggests.

“Are you nuts?” Lauren exclaims.   
“You’re never supposed to split up in situations like this. That equals an automatic murder.”

“But we only have until sunrise,” Dodie reminds her.  
“We need to get this done as quickly as possible.”

The group splits off; Dodie decides to go with Phil, Lauren and Lilly go together, Dan and Sean take the center path, which leaves Anna and Joey to decide where to go.

* * *

Dodie and Phil take the path on the farthest left. Once they’re a good distance away, they take the opportunity to discuss what’s been going on.

“I can’t believe people are actually dying,” Dodie whispers.  
“And we have to see seven or eight more of us get killed?”

“Maybe watching that was just a one time thing,” Phil suggests.

“I hope so. I don’t particularly like watching people die. Oh, I wish I could’ve brought my ukulele here. Making music is rather calming for me.”

“Well, you have your——what’s it called?”

Phil points to her instrument and she takes a look.

“I’m not too sure, actually. I think it’s called a mandolin.”

“Do you know how to play it?”

“I mean, not exactly. I did a little research on how to play it before I came here and I tuned it, but that’s about it.”

“I don’t really know why, but I feel like the mandolin’s almost the same color as your eyes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I think that shade of brown’s really nice. It’s very pretty, especially in your eyes.”

She and Phil come to a stop in the darkness, save for the full moonlight. Dodie blushes a little and wonders why he's saying that.

Is Phil flirting with her?

“Oh,” she stammers looking down at her feet and brushing some stray hairs behind her ear.  
“Um, thanks, Phil. That’s…….really sweet of you to say.”

“I also really like your voice. I think it’s really sweet and pretty.”

Now she’s 95% sure he’s flirting with her. She’s not exactly sure what to say at this point. All she can really do is blush. All of a sudden, she feels his large, warm hand wrap around her small, cold one. 

“Why are you holding my hand?” she asks.

“It looked cold,” Phil says. 

She’s not really sure if he’s lying or not. Her hand did feel a bit chilly, but not terribly. 

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No, it’s fine. I……kinda like it,” she replies giving a gentle smile.

For a few moments, she relishes in the warmth of his hand. In all of this chaos that has happened, and will probably still happen, it’s nice to get a little moment of calm and peace, especially with someone like Phil.

But then she realizes the stakes and shakes her head. 

“We….should probably keep going. We don’t really have much time.”

“Oh. Right,” Phil says sadly. 

They keep walking when they reach a dead end. They’re about to turn around and go back when Dodie spies a piece of paper. 

“That could be important,” she hypothesizes, picking it up before she and Phil rush back the way they came. 

* * *

As soon as the others have left, Anna spies a set of footprints on the trail furthest to the right, one that none of the others seem to have.

“Joey, come look at this,” she says beckoning him over.  
“I think those are Tessa and Ro’s footprints. And none of the other trails have them. I think it’s this way.”

“Maybe we should double-check,” Joey suggests.  
"Otherwise it could be a red herring."

“Good thinking,” Anna agrees.

They go down the trail and sure enough, they reach the second circle. And there they find five more trails. But this time, they know what to look for.

“We should go tell the others,” Anna says determined.

And they head back for the first circle.

* * *

Meanwhile Ro and Tessa have been checking trails, finding dead ends, and it’s not until the fourth circle that Tessa catches on.

“Wait, Ro,” she says as she suddenly comes to a halt, putting her arm out to stop Ro.   
“Have you noticed that the trail that takes us to the next circle is different than the ones that take us to dead ends?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look behind us.”

The two of them turn around. Sure enough, they’ve been leaving two sets of footprints in a trail that looks to be mostly made of dirt, but has a small amount of grass and hay covering it slightly. They come up on the fourth circle and find one that’s just grass and hay. Sure enough, that leads to a dead end AND neither of them leave any footprints. 

“So all we have to do is take a few steps in and then look behind us," Ro hypothesizes.  
"If we leave footprints, then we know we’re going the right way.”

“Exactly.”

They use this logic for the fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on until they reach the ninth circle. And what they see makes them skid to a halt and gasp. 

Up on what looks to be a scarecrow poll, dressed in scarecrow clothing, is a man with brown hair who looks to be in his early 30s.

Someone one of the women recognizes immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> We find out who this mysterious face is, and the group must then summon the girl back.


	16. Melodious Hunts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests must summon the daughter of the Scarecrow King to retrieve their second medallion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone actually guessed who the YouTuber was before I posted this. I can't remember their username, but kudos to them!

“Matthew?” Rosanna asks.

“Oh,” Matthew Patrick, aka Matpat, exclaims excitedly.  
“Ro! What are you doing here?”

“I was invited to a party. What about you?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened. One minute I was editing a video, and then suddenly I feel something whomp me in the back of my head. Next thing I know, this girl’s making me change into these….scarecrow clothes and now I’m up on this pole.”

Ro tries to get close to him, but suddenly these two……giants, made of what look to be ears of corn, step towards her, which makes her scream and nearly jump into Tessa’s arms.

“Oh yeah. And I’ve also got these two guarding me," he adds casually.

“Why did she put you up there?” Tessa asks.

“I don’t know. Something about sacrifice and crows, I think.”

“Oh my God!” a voice yells. 

The two turn around to find Joey and the others. Joey runs up to Ro and hugs her tight. 

“Are you guys okay?” 

“We’re fine,” Ro replies as she hugs Joey back.

“Joey!” Mat yells out.

Joey looks up and gasps when he sees Mat on the pole.

“Mat, what are you doing here?”

“I don’t know, but I feel like I’m in trouble right now.”

All of a sudden, Anna spies a note on the edge of the circle. Picking it up, she reads it aloud:

 

_To summon the daughter of the Scarecrow King, the right melody must be played. The proper instrument is paired in fours with two apiece and colored the vibrant trunk of a faerie’s oak tree. Around this maze, you will find small pieces of paper that will tell you what you need to play and in what order._

“Oh God, we have to move even more?” Dan groans.  
“I’m tired.”

“But what are we supposed to play?” Lilly asks.

_Paired in fours with two apiece? Colored the vibrant trunk of a faerie’s oak tree?_ Dodie looks in her hands at her mandolin, colored a beautiful brown, like the trunk of a tree from a faerie land. Behind the strings, paired in twos, are small white pieces of parchment, each with a number on them from 1 to 4.

“I think this is what they mean!” she exclaims as she holds up her mandolin.

Everyone looks at Dodie and she shows them the little numbers on the mandolin below the strings. 

“Okay, we’ll split off again,” Joey suggests.  
“Ro, you wanna team?” 

Ro nods.

“Tessa,” Anna calls.  
“Team up?”

“Sure!”

“Phil!” Dan yells.  
“You wanna team up?”

Phil looks over at Dodie and back to Dan.

“Um, can Dodie come with us as well?”

Dan looks a bit flabbergasted but shrugs.

“Sure.”

“Lilly!” Sean exclaims.  
“You, me, and Lauren?”

“Cool, let’s go!” Lilly exclaims and all the groups run off.

“Okay, cool,” Mat calls out.  
“I guess I’ll just…..hang around here, I guess. Hehe. Oh, that was terrible.”

* * *

Anna and Tessa so far have made a decent team and are pretty quick thinkers, so the fact that they’ve decided to pair up together seems like they’d find it quick, right?

Well...

“I can’t find anything!” Tessa grumbles as she hitches up her priestess skirt.  
“It is so difficult to run in this dress. You’re lucky you got the falconer. You don’t have to wear a dress.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

All of a sudden, Tessa looks up, and on a tall stalk of corn, is a small piece of paper.

“I found it! But how am I supposed to get it?”

She tries to jump, but her skirt is so big and voluptuous that she can’t jump as high as she would want to.

“Maybe you could try jumping, Anna. Anna?"

Tessa looks over to find that Anna’s a bit distracted. She’s feeling around a pocket of hers.

“Why are you doing that?” Tessa asks.

“I dunno. I feel like there’s something inside of my pocket, but I can’t——oh here we go!”

She pulls out a small, but strange, blade of grass.

“What’s that?” Tessa asks.

“I don’t know. I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before. Actually it kind of looks like the grass in Zelda, the one that you use to call a…..hawk.”

She and Tessa look at each other and it hits them.

"Should we?" Tessa asks.  
"I mean, like are we actually gonna do this?"

"If it works, then it works," Anna shrugs.

Immediately Anna blows the Hawk Song into the grass. They wait a few moments.

“If this works….” Tessa begins.

Suddenly they hear a screech. A hawk soars from the sky and perches on Anna’s shoulder gently so as to not frighten the two of them. The two of them stare at the hawk, mouths gaping open for a few moments

“Maybe he can help us get the paper.”

Anna turns towards the stalk and aims the bird at it before gently sending it up. It grabs the paper in its beak and hands it back down to her. 

“Thank you,” Anna says as the hawk takes off. 

The two of them look at the paper. On one of the corners is the number 3 and in the center of the paper are four sets of numbers, which read  _2-2, 4-1, 3-2, 3-2._

“What the hell does that even mean?” Anna asks.

“I don’t know. Let’s head back to the group.”

* * *

Dan, Dodie, and Phil are having a little more trouble, seeing as they have one person extra, and while that’s good to have more brain power, it also means there may be more arguing.

“We need to go this way,” Phil says pointing at one of the paths in the third circle. 

“I’m pretty sure I saw something fly by this way,” Dan claims as he points to another path.

“Wait!” Dodie exclaims, turning to Phil.  
“What about the piece of paper we found earlier? When we were trying to find which trail lead on to the next circle?"

Dodie reaches into her pocket and pulls out the piece of paper; it dons the number 2 and four sets of numbers reading  _1-1, 2-2, 1-2, 4-1._

“So you mean to tell me we’ve been running around for nothing?” Dan gasps. 

“Not nothing,” Dodie shrugs.  
“I mean, we got a bit of exercise.”

Dan has to purse his lips in order not to tell off Dodie. Exercise isn't really his thing. Like at all. The only marathons he does are on Netflix. 

“Let’s get back to the others,” Phil says running through the path they came from.

* * *

Joey and Ro find themselves slightly distracted. They’ve found their slip of paper, alright, but it’s on top of a corn stalk. Ten feet tall. Is that even possible?

“My, oh my, miss american pie!” Joey sighs as he reaches for the top.  
“This is definitely harder than it looks.”

“Maybe I can help reach it,” Ro suggests.

Joey has to hold back a fit of laughter. He really admires Ro’s willingness to help and her determination, but she’s not even five feet tall. 

“I can!” Ro assures him, clearly slightly taken aback by his response.  
“Here, squat down.”

Joey, pursing his lips to avoid bursting out laughing in both hilarity and endearment, squats down. All of a sudden, he feels the petite alchemist on his shoulders.

_Is she really doing what I think she’s doing?_

“Grab my feet. Grab my feet, quick!” she exclaims.

Joey grabs onto her feet and ankles. 

“Got ‘em,” he says.

“Okay, now go back up.”

Slowly he comes back up, but begins to waver and stumble.

“Joey, please hold still!” Ro exclaims.   
“Please hold still! I feel like we’re gonna fall!"

“I can’t help it!” he says.

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” she asks, genuinely concerned. 

“Not really,” he answers.  
“I just can’t really see. Your skirt’s kinda blocking the way."

Ro decides she’s gonna try to be quick regardless because this doesn’t seem very stable.

“Okay, okay, go forward just a bit.”

He takes a few steps forward, but his grip loosens slightly on her feet. Ro screams as she begins to feel herself topple, but quick as a flash, Joey has her feet and ankles down tight. For a few moments, Ro is still, aside from trembling slightly, as she tries to recover from the shock of almost falling.

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaims.  
“Are you okay, Joey? I’m so sorry!”

He can’t help but laugh a bit at how sweet she is.

“What are you apologizing for?” he giggles.  
“I’m the one that almost made you fall.”

“I could’ve hurt you on the way down.”

“It’s fine. I’m sorry.”

“Okay, let’s go forward a little bit more. Just take it a bit slowly, Joey.”

Joey takes a few small steps forward.

“Is that good?”

“Just like maybe two baby steps more.”

He does a count in his head as he takes two baby steps forward. After about five seconds, he hears from up top.

“Got it!”

Ro holds tight to the paper as Joey squats back down to let her off. After reaching the ground, she looks at the paper. It has a number 1 on it and four sets of numbers reading  _1-1, 1-1, 3-2, 4-2._

“I think these are the order of the strings that need to be played,” Ro theorizes.  
“And I think that one in the corner means it’s the first in the sequence.”

“Good thinking. Let’s head back to the others and see if we can put this together. 

* * *

Sean, Lauren, and Lilly are the only ones still in the maze. Right now, Sean and Lilly are in a slight argument about which way to go. 

“Maybe we just missed it on our way here,” Sean suggests.

“Do you honestly think we’re gonna find our slip of paper going back the way we came?” Lilly exclaims. 

“I really think we should check the middle path.”

“But slips of paper are pretty small.”

“It’s probably stuck on top of a corn stalk or something.”

Meanwhile Lauren checks down each path. When she gets to the middle one, she hears from Lilly

“Look, I’m tired of arguing. I’m gonna go help Lauren in the middle. Feel free to lend us a hand.”

It’s not a suggestion, but more of a threat. It sends chills down Lauren’s spine as she finds the slip of paper stuck on a corn stalk. 

“I can try getting it,” Lilly offers.

Bending down, she pushes off as hard as she can and the slip of paper *just* touches her hand. But that little graze lodges it from the stalk. Lauren picks it up to find the number 4 in the corner and a sequence of four pairs of numbers reading  _3-1, 3-1, 2-2, 4-1._

The two of them return to the circle to find Sean still standing there.

“Why didn’t you come help?” Lilly exclaims in exasperation.

Sean shrugs, making the bells on his hat jingle.

“I dunno. Seemed like you had it all figured out.”

Huffing in frustration, Lilly leads the other two back to the center, making it very clear that she’s gonna remember this.

* * *

Once everyone’s reconvened, the group compares their slips of paper and puts them in order from 1 to 4. 

“So this is the sequence that you need to play,” Lilly tells Dodie.

Dodie nods as she preps the mandolin.

“Everyone ready?” she asks.

A half-hearted agreement ripples through them. Dodie begins to play and each time she hits a string, the note changes, which creeps Ro out quite a bit. 

After Dodie finishes, she slowly comes out of formation. There’s a moment of silence and the group begins to wonder “were we cheated?” 

“Who goes there?” a voice exclaims loudly, startling the group. 

They turn around to find, in her shortness and blonde hair and hay and gold-embroidered sack glory, the daughter of the Scarecrow King. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> The Daughter of the Scarecrow King appears, and the guests learn that they must vote people in to another death competition.


	17. The Placeholder of Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The daughter of the Scarecrow King appears, MatPat joins the crew, and they learn they must vote two more people in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, my birthday's tomorrow (July 11th). If you wanna get me a birthday present and not have to pay anything, maybe give some kudos and comments. I love comments, especially funny, creative, and kind comments. Plus it's free, so it's a win for everyone!

As soon as she appears, the corn minions/guards that are guarding Matpat step out of their positions and kneel before her. Ro, deciding to show some respect and courtesy, does the same, but the rest of the group is too shocked to follow her lead. The girl, not as timid as before, glides over to the group. Upon seeing them confused, she exclaims

“Do you dare disrespect royalty? Do you know who I am?”

The group is too stunned to say a word. But Joey eyes a medallion on her sack and he knows they’re in the right place. Scanning the group, she eyes Ro, who is still kneeling before her and she smiles kindly.

“See her?” she asks the group rhetorically.  
“This fair maiden here? SHE knows how to show manners and respect.”

Approaching Ro, she gently lifts up her chin. 

“What might your name be?”

“My name is Rosanna, your majesty. But you may call me Ro. Most do.”

The girl is taken slightly aback, but pleasantly so. She gives a laugh and steps back.

“Oh, I quite like her,” she says decidedly as she points at Ro.  
“I quite like her indeed. Soft-spoken, but there’s an inner confidence. You may all rise.”

As the corn guards rise, so does Ro. The girl collects herself.

“Why did you summon me?”

The group is silent for a few moments. After some time, it’s Joey who speaks up.

“Um, we need that medallion. The one on your chest.”

The girl looks to the medallion.

“Let me guess,” she ponders.  
“You’re from the future and are here to defeat the Dark Prince, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, he invited us here. Well, actually, he had me trapped here for about a year, I think.”

“I see. Was HE with you?” she asks, indicating to Matpat.  
“I saw him wandering this maze and decided he would be perfect for the sacrifice.”

“Um, no, he wasn’t.”

“Pity."

The girl huffs and claps her hands. All of a sudden, the corn guards go forth and untie Mat.

“Which one of you was it that summoned me?”

The group looks at each other, but it’s Dodie who’s first to speak up.

“Well, I was the one who played the mandolin, but—“

“Fair enough.”

By this time the corn guards have untied Matpat. 

“You!” she says pointing at the one furthest from the group.  
“Fetch the boy some regular clothing. I cannot have a regular human in sacrificial clothes.”

The corn guard slowly marches out of the corn maze, presumably to find Mat clothes. 

“And you,” she says pointing at the other.  
“Take this maiden and put her in the Lady Scarecrow clothes.”

Her arm turns and points directly at Dodie.

All of a sudden, there’s a clamor amongst the group. Dodie begins to feel terrified and the others try to protect her as the corn guard closes in on her. She doesn’t want to be a sacrifice. She doesn’t even care what she would be sacrificed to. The prospect of being sacrificed to anything is terrifying. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dan stammers. 

“It must be done,” she says firmly, but with a bit of emotion wavering in her tone.   
“The Dark Prince has decreed that every full moon, a sacrifice of a human meal to the dark birds must be made. But this time around, he specified that it must be one from the future AND from this very group.”

Dodie’s heart begins to pound and sink. She thought that she would make it at least a little further, but it looks like her time might be growing thin.

_I’m gonna be sacrificed to dark birds. They’re going to eat me alive. I really wish she hadn’t told me that._

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lauren exclaims.  
“Maybe there’s another way we can settle this. You said it just has to be one of our group, right?”

She nods and considers this.

“Perhaps,” she ponders slowly.  
“Perhaps there IS another way.”

By this time, the guard has returned with clothing for Matpat. He thrusts it into Mat’s hands as pushes him into the corn to switch.

“Yes. There is,” she decidedly announces after a bit more thinking.  
“Two of you must be selected by the vote of the group to pick apples in our orchard. The winner will be spared.”

There’s a sigh of relief from Dodie, but it’s short-lived as she feels the corn guard grab her and pull her out. 

“Wait. Why am I still being pulled?” she exclaims.

“You still summoned me, so you shall be the placeholder. Plus I need more incentive to get these peasants to do my bidding.”

Dodie sighs as the other corn guard hands her the Lady Scarecrow clothes and sends her into the cornfield opposite of Matpat. Joey has to literally bite his tongue to keep him from telling this self-proclaimed princess off. The medallion would’ve been incentive enough. 

After a few short moments, Matpat reemerges in what appears to be John’s scholar wear.

“Why is there a hole in the chest?” he asks.

“You….don’t want to know,” Joey exclaims disgusted. 

“Wait,” Anna exclaims.  
“How are we supposed to know where the orchard is?”

The girl smiles, seemingly impressed by this foresight. 

“Very observant. You!”

She points to one of the corn guards.

“Bring the Scarecrow’s Horn.”

The corn guard tromps into the cornfield and soon returns with a bronze instrument in the shape of a Thanksgiving cornucopia. He hands it to Anna. 

“This is the Scarecrow’s Horn,” she informs them.  
“Once two of you have been selected, simply go out to the front and blow into the horn. One of my guards shall then find and bring those two to the orchard. Now go!”

The corn guard steps forward to usher them out, but the group is already way ahead of them. Matpat, now the new Scholar, follows the group, standing next to Ro as they exit the maze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I aspire to have as much confidence as the Scarecrow King's Daughter.
> 
> Next Chapter:  
> Ro and Mat miss their families and fur babies, Artemis gets a little flirty, Sean is speechless, and the next two are up for elimination.


	18. The Second Round of Votes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second round of votes are cast and two more are up for elimination. Also, Artemis gets kinda flirty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Online class is kicking me. The lecture videos are anywhere from 37 minutes to over an hour for one part of each section. On the bright side, I've been getting good exam scores.

The group reconvenes in the parlor. Matt takes a moment to observe it and then sits down beside Ro.

“So let me get this straight,” he says as Ro explains what’s been going on.  
“We have to vote two people into these competitions to potentially die?”

She nods regretfully. It’s not her idea of a fun time, not even close to it, but if they don’t they’re all stuck here. She really misses her sweet little French bulldog, Cookie. She knows that her sister Molly, or Mo as some people call her, is dogsitting Cookie after Ro asked her. But despite knowing that her baby girl’s in good hands, she misses her so much that it physically makes her heart ache.

Matt feels the same way. Not only does he have a fur baby of his own, his cat Skip aka CatPat, but his wife Steph has a baby on the way and he really wants to see his kid. If he dies, he’ll never get to be a father and pass on his nerdy trivia and wisdom. He'll never get to hear his kid say "I need to get to a checkpoint," which is just an excuse for a half an hour more of playing a video game, which he would be okay with because he would totally do that himself.

He even misses Jason, that’s how desperate he is to escape. But the upside to this is that Ro’s with him. Ro, who’s made a dinosaur cake and Nintendo Switch cookies with him. Ro, who’s a theatre kid at heart like him. Ro, who he was able to test his theory, one might say his life theory, on; the theory that it’s impossible to keep a straight face after being slapped across the face with a banana. She’s like Mabel Pines, bubbly, adorable, very sweet, and dorky, and he thinks that maybe things will be okay. He just has to make sure the two of them, and Joey, make it out of here alive for sure.

Artemis enters the room, carrying a new stack of cards with MatPat’s face on them.

“I heard we have a new guest,” she says looking over at him and smiling seductively.

“Hey,” he greets her, waving a bit awkwardly all things considered.   
“I’m Matpat, or Matt.”

“Artemis,” she replies.  
“Oh dear. It looks like your clothes are torn, and perhaps a bit bloody.”

“Wait,” he says, his eyes growing wide.  
“Am I wearing a dead person’s clothes?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Artemis shrugs as she sets down the stack of cards face-up.  
“I’ll go draw some water from the castle well to wash it out while the rest of you decide who to vote into the challenge.”

All of a sudden, she looks around the room, doing a mental headcount.

“Wait. Where’s Dodie?”

The group seems a bit confused until they remember that they kinda ran off without waiting for Artemis. 

“She’s being used as bait,” Tessa tells her quite bluntly.

“Oh. Well I suppose then I should put her cards off to the side for this round.” 

She takes Dodie’s cards and removes them from the table.

“I assume you all know what the challenge is, at least in comparison to the last one.”

There’s a half-hearted sound of agreement that ripples throughout the group.

“I’ll go get some water from the well for our newest guest. The rest of you, feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.”

And she leaves the parlor.

* * *

When she’s out of sight, the group splits up and begins to start talking. This time, it’s Lilly who has a clear idea of who to vote in.

“We need to vote in Sean,” she whispers to Tessa and Anna.  
“He didn’t really do anything to help. He hasn’t proven himself. He’s kinda just there.”

“How so?” Tessa asks.

“When Lauren and I went to get our slip for the mandolin, he just…..stood there. He said it seemed like we had it covered, but I honestly feel like he could’ve done more.”

Lauren, meanwhile, convenes with Matpat, kind of introducing herself, kind of trying to figure out who to put into this challenge, as well as with Phil. Lilly’s right. Sean didn’t really do much to help out, but who could logically be a fair match for him?

“What do you know about Sean?” she asks.

The group looks at one another and shrugs.

“Really kind of just what I’ve seen and researched on him for my videos,” Matpat says.

“Lilly’s really determined to send him in. I think we should pit him against someone who has the same chance as him at coming back alive.”

“What about Anna?” Phil suggests.

“She seems like she’s about the same level.”

“Who is Anna?” Matt asks confused.

“She’s the one with the really red hair.”

Matt turns and takes a look at her, sort of studying her.

“I feel like, just from what I’ve seen of her, which is barely anything, she might have a slight advantage over Sean. But overall, anything seems fair game at this point. Maybe either her or the girl with the light-blonde hair could be a good match.”

* * *

Sean, meanwhile, is talking strategy with Dan, Joey, and Ro. He needs to make sure he’s not up for elimination.

“So what did each of you contribute?” Joey asks.

“I mean, I didn’t really have much of a chance to do anything,” Dan admits sheepishly.  
“Phil and Dodie, when we were trying to find Tessa and Ro, had apparently found the slip. And since we had nothing to do aside from that, it really left me with nothing to do.”

“Well, then maybe this could be what you do for this round,” Joey suggests.

“I would, but I’m NOT athletic. And I was also the one who kinda directed Phil during our key puzzle."

“Well, you already know my answer for this, Joey,” Ro says.  
“I went ahead with Tessa to find the girl. I was also the one who retrieved our slip.”

“That’s true. And what about you, Sean?”

Sean feels trapped after Joey says that. He honestly  **has**  just been kind of taking a backseat, but he can’t say that. Otherwise he’ll be up for elimination for sure.

“Did you do ANYTHING?” Joey goes on, causing him to cave.

“I didn’t know what to do, okay?” he whispers loudly.  
“I had an idea of where we could look for our slip, but then it was in the middle and I thought that they were doing fine, so…..”

He decides to shut up while he’s still ahead. But something tells him he’s already dug himself quite a big hole. 

“So you basically did nothing then,” Joey summarizes.

He’s starting to get kind of pissed off. Not that Sean didn’t do anything, though that’s upsetting to be sure, but it's that he’s trying to talk around the answer. He feels like he’d have more respect for Sean if he was just straightforward.

_Well, I know who I’M voting for,_ he thinks.

“Okay,” Artemis announces as she enters in the doorway with a bucket and a rag.  
“I think this will be a good amount to help you clean it out. Or do you want me to do it?”

There’s a slight hint of sultriness in her voice when she says that last sentence. Awkwardly, Matpat comes to take the bucket and rag from her.

“I……think I’d rather do it myself.”

She shrugs as the rest of them sit down. 

“Suit yourself. It’s time to vote. Ro, would you like to go first?”

If she’s being honest with herself, Ro really doesn’t WANT to go first. Electing people to die isn’t her idea of a good time, but she decides that the sooner she gets it over with, the better. 

Having sensed Artemis’ tone and Matt’s awkwardness, she brings her close in when she’s up there.

“Hey, sorry, I just wanted to let you know that Matpat’s actually married and he’s got a kid on the way. So, just wanted to let you know.”

Artemis purses her lips and Ro can tell that she’s disappointed.

“Damn it,” she whispers under her breath, but then a slight look of shame emerges. Bowing her head, she sighs.

“I’m sorry,” she says lowly.  
“I’ve just never met someone who looks that handsome or beautiful that I’ve felt any attraction to, except maybe to one other."

“Hey, you didn’t know,” Ro assures her kindly, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.   
“But now you do.”

Turning her attention back to the cards, she scans them over. Spying her own card, she momentarily debates whether to vote HERSELF in. She’s pretty good with food and apples are a food. But there is still a chance she could die. Deciding against it, she then debates on who, out of the others, to vote in to the challenge. Last time she voted someone in, she didn’t even look at the card because she didn’t want to bear any sort of guilt. But this time, she decides to make an informed vote.

Sean made it clear he didn’t do anything, but from what she’s heard from everyone else, probably a lot of people will be voting him in. Tessa wouldn’t be a good choice, as she assumes finding apples in an orchard might require a bit of running and she’s got a long dress on. Anna seems like she might be a decent option. Ro hasn’t really worked with her, but she has worked with Tessa who seems really close with her. 

_There’s really no good option here,_ she thinks with regret.

Gulping, not knowing what else to do, she picks up one of Anna’s cards and, trembling, hands it to Artemis before sitting back down next to Matpat.

Lilly’s next up and wastes NO TIME in grabbing one of Sean’s cards. Neither does Joey. Lauren’s also a little bit pissed that Sean didn’t help, but the last time she voted someone in, they died. But on the other hand, they NEED the strongest players to stay around longer. 

Sighing, she picks up one of the Jester cards and hands it to Artemis. 

* * *

“Everyone ready?” Artemis asks when they’re finished voting.  
“Good luck.”

As she shuffles the deck, Sean can feel his heart pounding and can kind of see it in his clothes. There’s a huge chance he might be picked and if he is, who knows?

Artemis picks the first card from the top of the shuffled deck and stares at it for a moment before flipping it around.

“Anna.”

Hearing her name, Anna’s stomach clenches up. She couldn’t have been picked, right? It’s just her mind playing tricks on her, right?

“Wait, did you say Anna?” she asks Artemis.  
“Please tell me you didn’t say Anna.”

Artemis purses her lips and nods.

“I did say Anna."

Right now, Anna’s mind is swirling. Who the heck voted HER in? Last time the first person who was picked was John and he lost. But maybe things will change. All she can do now is hope that her opponent isn’t Tessa.

Artemis shuffles the deck once more. Sean’s stomach is in a tense knot. He knows that his chances of being pulled are high. All he can do is hope for a miracle.

Pulling the second card, Artemis takes a look at it before flipping it around.

“Sean.”

And there it is. Sean’s been voted in, and now he’s been picked. It hits him that he could potentially die. 

“If you two would follow me,” Artemis tells them.  
“Everyone else can stay.”

The group breathes a collective sigh of relief. It’s one less death that they have to watch.

“Hey,” Tessa tells Anna with a crack in her voice.  
“Don’t forget the horn.”

Anna, nodding, picks it up before hugging Tessa. 

“Just do your best,” Tessa tells her as she tries to keep the tears from falling.  
“That’s all you can do.”

Anna nods as the two of them pull apart.

“Good luck!” Phil yells as they step out the front door.

Once they’re outside, Anna and Sean look at each other.

“Ready?” Anna asks him.

Sean shrugs.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

She nods before she takes a deep breath and blows into the horn. It makes a loud, roaring sound before she pulls it from her mouth. The three of them wait a few moments.

“Artemis,” Anna says to her.   
"Do you know who voted for me?”

She nods.

“Can you tell me please?”

“I don’t believe I can.”

“Oh.”

She falls silent. A few awkward moments pass before finally one of the corn guards emerges. He gives a slight gesture and a grunt as if to say “Please follow me,” before turning around. With no real choice in the matter, Anna, Sean, and Artemis follow him away from the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Anna and Sean go head to head in a competition of speed and sight while Artemis reunites with an old "friend."*
> 
> **Aka, Artemis is hella bi.


	19. Apple of the Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Artemis reunites with a secret love while Anna and Sean face off in a fight to gather sixteen apples. The winner will be able to free Dodie and retrieve the medallion.
> 
> But they still need a sacrifice for the Dark Birds......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO CLOSE TO FINISHING MY ONLINE COURSE.

 

It’s quite a trek to the orchard. It’s actually past the cornfield maze and a bit further out. But they eventually arrive to find two rows of trees. On the other side, they see a faint, orange glow and they figure that that is where Dodie is.

The corn guard gives a grunt and holds his hand out as if to say “Halt!” before returning to the side of the daughter of the Scarecrow King; beside her are two wood, woven baskets and two sets of burlap sack clothes, and, on her left is a tree stump with an hourglass resting atop of it. The two of them come to the same conclusion; this is going to be a speed challenge.

“Well,” she says arrogantly after looking at Anna and Sean.  
“I thought they would’ve sent a power duo, but I suppose this is as good as any.”

Suddenly she looks past Anna to see Artemis and her eyes grow wide. The two make eye contact and the daughter blushes, smiling.

“Artemis,” she gasps.  
“It’s…..it’s been a while.”

“It has,” Artemis says breathily.

Anna does a double take between the two.

“You two know each other?”

“Artemis knows a lot of people,” the daughter shrugs.

“Yes, but I don’t know many people as beautiful as you, Helena.”

“Wait. How old are you two?” Sean asks.

The two of them stop and look at him.

“We’re just……friends,” the daughter, named Helena, says quietly.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Artemis scoffs.  
“I’d say maybe just a bit more than friends.”

“Wait. Do you two—?” Anna asks worried.

“No. Nothing beyond friendly gestures and hand-holding.”

“My father would kill me if he found out,” Helena sighs.  
“Anyway, shall we get to this challenge? I sense that you’re not particularly fond of letting an innocent soul die.”

Without hesitation, they nod and Artemis hands them a note. Anna reads it aloud:

 

_There are two rows of sixteen apple trees lined up in the orchard. The two guests must run to each tree, and pick the reddest off of them. The corn guards shall each be following you both to ensure that you don’t move to the next tree before picking the apple off of your current tree and placing it in your basket. Be warned; the dark birds will be swooping down and attacking you at random. They will stay away from the face, chest, and nether regions. However anywhere else is fair game for an attack._

_The first guest to pick and bring all sixteen apples back will be able to save the placeholder and themselves from death as well as achieving the medallion that you seek. However the guest who was not fast or keen enough will be put on the pole and torn apart by the dark birds. If after half an hour neither of the guests have picked and returned with all sixteen, the placeholder shall be torn apart._

 

"Oh God," Sean groans.

Anna’s looking down the trees and on the first and second trees on the left side, on the very bottom branches, are incredibly red apples, one on each tree. All she can do is hope she can claim those two.

“Do you understand?” Helena asks.

The two of them nod, but half-heartedly.

“Okay. Boy, you’ll be on the right. Fire Hair, you’ll be on the left.”

_Well, I guess it’s my lucky day!_ Anna thinks, but at the same time, hopes she didn’t jinx it. 

“Please put these over your garments,” she says indicating to the burlap clothes.  
"We don't want to waste time with dressing you in them in case one of you loses."

Anna’s is a long burlap dress that kinda flows, luckily not below the feet. Sean’s, on the other hand, is a long sleeve burlap shirt and long matching pants. 

“Here are your baskets,” she says once they’ve put the clothes on.

She hands them both the baskets. 

“Take your starting positions in front of your row.”

Anna breaks off and goes in front of the left row, her guard going to her left. The two red apples are right in her vision and she's ready to fight.

Helena takes ahold of the hourglass and flips it before violently smacking it against the stump.

“Begin!”

Anna immediately charges into the orchard. Her hand flies out and snatches the first apple like a wig off of a drag queen before dropping it in her basket.

The guard moves ahead and Anna plucks the other red apple, dropping it in her basket. She takes a quick glance to the right. Sean’s still working on his first tree, so she’s feeling pretty good right now. 

With a confident smile, she heads off to the third tree.

* * *

Sean dashes in and scales the first tree. He takes a glance upward and on the branch above the first is an apple, completely red. He begins to scale the tree, but his shoes are making it difficult to get a decent footing on the trunk. He takes a quick glance over to the left. Anna’s already on her third tree and he starts to panic.

_I have to move fast. If I don’t, I’m gonna be bird food._

It feels like his heart is palpitating at a thousand kilometers an hour. This isn’t just a child’s game; the ante for this is his life. He’s got no time to mess around. He takes a few deep breaths and tries to figure out a way to get a decent grip.

Finally, with several groans under his breath, he manages to get a hold on the trunk by wrapping his legs around the trunk like a koala bear. He gets his right foot on the first branch, then his left. He reaches and his hand clasps the red apple!

There’s no time to lose! He jumps from the branches and falls to the ground. He places his prize in his basket and the corn guard moves ahead to the next tree.

_One down, fifteen to go._

* * *

Anna’s on her fourth tree and she’s feeling pretty confident. It’s a pretty easy climb to get the apple. She gets herself up onto the first branch, but suddenly there’s a flash of black in front of her, causing her to almost topple back down. And all around her she hears 

_“Caw! Caw!”_

She looks around as black birds charge at her and she realizes what they are.

Crows.

The dark birds Helena was talking about are crows.

_Of course they are. Because why wouldn’t you have crows in a cornfield when the guardian of the medallion is the daughter of a scarecrow?_

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of crows coming at her from almost every direction. Some of them are pecking at her, even when she tries to swat them away. And their beaks are sharp as hell.

“Son of a bitch!” she growls as a scarecrow pecks at the palm of her hand, causing her to bleed slightly, before continuing to scale the rest of the tree.

* * *

Sean’s on his third tree by the time the crows come for him. 

“Oh Jesus Christ!” he yells out.

Luckily for him, his hand is on the apple. He just grasps it tight and jumps down into a roll. But the crows are still on his trail as he moves onto the next tree. 

Surprisingly, though, these crows chasing him are giving Sean a burst of energy. He’s taking in a lot, but his mind is focusing in on the reddest thing in each tree. By the time he reaches his thirteenth tree, he’s passed Anna.

_I think I can make it,_ he thinks.  
_I’m gonna get through this! I’m gonna go home!_

* * *

Anna feels really good about her progress so far. In spite of the crows, she’s scaled nine, ten, eleven trees. But then, on the twelfth one, she hits a roadblock. 

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me!"

The apple she’s looking for is on a rather precarious branch. The only way she can get it is if she could scale the branch and snatch the apple. She climbs up the trunk and pushes herself up a few branches until she’s near the branch where the apple is. 

She leans forward to try to get it. Her fingers just barely graze the skin when she begins to lose balance. She topples forward a bit, but manages to regain her balance by leaning back. Once she’s regained her center of balance, she realizes that there’s no way she’s gonna be able to get it by simply climbing. 

_I’m gonna have to lie on that branch to get the apple._

Her heart’s racing at a million miles an hour as she works to the branch. Lying down on her stomach, she feels the branch bending. 

“Oh God!” she exclaims.

Anna’s so close to screaming. These branches, on their own, aren’t the sturdiest, so to put her whole bodyweight on a small one is like playing Russian Roulette, except all but one of the chambers have bullets inside of them. She’s so incredibly tempted to try to find another one, but it’d be in vain; she’s scaled the tree already. That’s the reddest in the bunch.

Using her feet, she pushes against the trunk to get further along, trying to avoid the crows pecking at her. The branch creaks and cracks as it bends downward. She can’t keep stalling. She’s gotta do this quick. 

Without thinking, she reach out and steals the apple before pulling back, giving a little scream before climbing to a lower branch, and jumping down. Anna takes a breather, until she sees Sean up ahead. He’s one ahead of her. 

How?!? The last time she saw him, he was struggling just to get up the trunk of his first tree. 

There’s absolutely no time to waste. Anna charges in to tree number thirteen. By this time, her mind is trained to know just what to look for and her movements up the tree seem almost automatic. 

_Except, of course, when there are so many damn crows pecking at me!_

She has to keep swatting them away, but also she's tried to be just slightly courteous. However, courtesy isn’t gonna get her to finish quick, so she keeps moving regardless.

_Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen._

She jumps to the ground after apple fifteen. She looks over to Sean and Sean looks over to her. 

They’re both neck-and-neck. The pressure is on, and the crows are swarming. 

* * *

Immediately Anna rushes in and climbs, scaling the tree as she goes. There are a lot of apples with both red and green. She’s got no time to focus on Sean. This is her life on the line. She’s not gonna take this lightly.

Sean, meanwhile, is using the same technique, but he keeps looking over to the left to track how far up Anna is. The crows are swarming around him to distract him and a few times he loses his footing on these branches. 

Anna’s scaled most of the tree and has come to a conclusion; the last apple is at the very top of the tree.

_Because why would this be easy?_

She keeps her eyes peeled and sure enough, at the very top, is a dark red apple, comparatively larger than the ones she’s been picking, even with the torchlight beside the sacrificial pole illuminating against its skin. 

She takes a risk and does a little hop. Her hand grasps onto the apple and plucks it right off. 

_I did it! I have all sixteen!_

But then she looks over, and Sean is so close. Wasting no time, she drops to a lower branch, drops to the ground, drops the apple in her basket, and runs like hell back to the other side of the orchard while her corn guard goes over to the pole to untie Dodie. A few times, her legs feel like giving out, but she keeps picturing those crows coming at her and she manages to give herself multiple second winds.

She spies Helena and Artemis just up ahead and she sprints using up another wind….

“I did it!” she exclaims hoarsely as she stops in front of them and holding out the basket to Helena before, with a groan, dropping to the ground.

“Congratulations, Fire Hair,” Helena says with a small smile on her face.  
“Would you like your medallion now?”

“Not……right now,” Anna pants.  
“I need to……..rest…..for a few……..centuries.”

* * *

Sean’s got his hand on the last apple and plucks it before dropping to the ground. He suddenly realizes that the crows have stopped attacking him. He looks around. When his gaze falls onto the pole, he sees one of the corn guards untying Dodie and, chivalrously, helping her off before handing her musician clothes and gently ushering her to a section of the cornfield to change. He feels a small bout of relief, but then he looks to the other row of trees; Anna’s nowhere in sight.

All of a sudden, he feels a strong hand grasp him tightly, causing him to drop his basket.

“Hey! What the hell?” he exclaims before turning around and seeing that the other corn guard has him held tight.

The other corn guard takes a hold of his other arm and squeezes it tightly. It feels like these giants are cutting off the circulation in his arm. Then he sees where they’re taking him and his heart drops. 

“What? No! I was so close!” he exclaims as they slam his back against the pole and tie his hands and feet down.   
“Couldn’t I have an extra life or something?”

The rope nearly cuts into him as they finish tying him up.

“Oh God! Why crows?” he groans.

_Seriously! Why crows?_

All of a sudden, he sees a cloud of black diving down towards him. The first one tears deep into his arm, causing it to bleed.

“Son of a bitch!” he yells in anguish.  
“Be a bit more careful, will ya?”

But there’s no time to negotiate. The crows dive in and have at it and soon, blood is pouring from multiple gashes in his body. He tries not to cry out in agony as they tear into his flesh.

_No! This can’t be it!_

All of a sudden, he feels himself getting dizzy and lightheaded. He has a feeling there’s gonna be a kicker, and he soon finds that he’s right. 

The last thing he sees are two black dots speeding right at his eyes.

* * *

Dodie emerges from the cornfield in her musician clothes just in time to see the crows finish someone off. All she can really see is a skeleton. Her eyes begin to water. Someone died so that she could be safe. But she’s not sure who.

She suddenly feels a pat-pat on her shoulder. She looks over to see one of the corn guards consoling her. He gives two gentle grunts as if to say “There, there.” 

She hears someone to the right of her clear their throat. Looking over, she sees the other corn guard offering her his hand. But to her left she hears the other grunt back angrily. The two of them begin to grunt back and forth, and Dodie’s scared it’s gonna get too far. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” she tells the two of them, who stop mid-argument.  
“You can both hold my hands.” 

They look back at each other, shrug and each step to a side of her, holding out her hand. Gently, both of them float down into theirs and she’s escorted back to the other side of the orchard. 

_This kind of feels like a really weird version of ‘Wizard of Oz.’_

But she’s weirdly okay with it.

* * *

Finally they get to the other side of the orchard and Dodie gasps as Anna pushes herself up. Dodie runs over and takes her hand.

“Anna! Are you okay? What are those gashes?”

Anna shrugs.

“Crows.”

Dodie’s relieved until she remembers the skeleton.

“But then who—?”

“It was Sean,” Anna sighs.

Her eyes begin to water once again and Anna grabs ahold of her.

“Hey,” she assures her.  
“It’s gonna be alright. No one’s else is gonna die here.”

“He died to save me,” she chokes.   
“It should’ve been me who was torn apart.”

All of a sudden, she hears two deep yells of panic. Turning around, she sees the corn guards looking incredibly shocked. 

“What? Was it something I said?” Dodie asks innocently.

Helena listens as the two of them relay info to her.

“Ragnarok and Oschrome say that they’d be devastated if you had died,” Helena informs her.   
“I think these two have taken a liking to you.”

A few more grunts are uttered and Helena looks shocked.

“Oh! They’re saying they think you’re prettier than the human princess.”

Dodie, upon hearing this, looks down at the ground and blushes as they continue to grunt.

“They would like to know your name.”

“Oh,” she exclaims.  
“Dodie, my name’s Dodie.”

One of them gives a questioning grunt.

“Oschrome would like to know if that is short for anything.”

“Dorothy,” she shrugs.  
“Nothing really special.”

One of them gives a disagreeing grunt.

“Ragnarok thinks it’s a lovely name, as lovely as you.”

Dodie’s cheeks turn a bright red.

“Oh, well, that’s really sweet. Thank you.”

“Okay, this is kinda cute and all,” Anna intervenes as she finishes taking off her burlap over-clothing.  
“But we were promised a medallion.”

“Of course,” Helena exclaims as she removes it from her shirt and hands it to her. 

“Will I see you again, Helena?” Artemis asks hopefully.   
“I’ve missed you terribly.”

“Of course, but you don’t have much time to break the Dark Prince’s spell.”

“I could cast a spell to stop time.”

“Artemis, you know you can’t.”

“I’d still try to do it, to spend more time with you."

Helena, upon hearing this, blushes deeply.

“Oh, well, I suppose I could accompany you back to the castle, if that’s alright.”

Ragnarok and Oschrome grunt excitedly. 

“I think they would like to come along as well.”

“Oh, very well then,” Artemis exclaims happily.  
“Let us all take a stroll in the moonlight back to the castle.”

Artemis holds her hand out to Helena. Blushing even deeper, she takes ahold of it hesitantly. As they begin to walk back, Dodie and Anna look at each other with knowing smiles.

“I ship it,” they say at the same time before laughing and following suit. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Guilt begins to fester amongst the group, but transforms into suspicion and division when they find a warning.


	20. The Infections of Guilt and of Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quarter of the deaths have come to pass. Tensions begin to run high and Rosanna finds a scroll, warning them that not all are as they seem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yesterday's episode was bittersweet.

Back in the parlor, the rest of the guests sit around and wait for the others to return. The anticipation is building. Hearts are racing. And all of a sudden, they hear a sniffle. 

They look over next to Matt and find the alchemist with a tear in her eye. 

“Ro,” Tessa pipes up concerned.  
“Are you okay?”

“Ro’s struggling,” Lilly remarks.

“No, no,” she clarifies as she tries to choke back the tears.  
“I’m just, you know, feeling really guilty. I just picked someone who I hadn’t  really worked with before. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Matt puts a hand on her back and rubs it gently. 

“So, like, if they died, if they didn’t come back,” Lauren elaborates.  
“You’d feel like it was your fault?”

Ro nods with a sniffle.

“It’s okay. I feel like a lot of us would do the same,” Joey assures her.  
“Right now, I don’t really have anything against anyone here.”

“Neither do I,” Tessa adds.  
“It makes it really difficult to vote for people when you have literally no reason to vote them in, so I guess that’s the best strategy."

“I mean, I had reason to vote John in,” Lauren shrugs.  
“But I didn’t think he was gonna die.”

“Speaking of death, who do you think…..is gonna…..come back….from this one?” Dan asks awkwardly. 

Silence ripples amongst the group. It’s definitely not the right time to ask that and the group begins to feel uneasy. 

“I’m not sure it really matters,” Phil shrugs.   
“I just wish this wasn’t happening.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry you guys are stuck in this mess,” Joey sighs.

“It’s fine,” Lilly tells him.  
“We can’t change that we’re here, so let’s just focus on getting the eff out of here."

“Guys, look!” Tessa exclaims, pointing to a nearby window.

The group flocks to it to see six figures returning, including two rather large and square ones. As they approach the door, Ro’s the first one to rush to the archway and out the door. Matt follows suit, and soon the rest.

“Anna!” Tessa shrieks when she sees her best friend returning, weary an wary, but nonetheless returning.

She rushes over to her, nearly tripping over her dress, before squeezing her tightly. Ro joins in, relieved to see the red-haired girl and then quickly realizes there’s a person next to her. 

“Dodie! You’re okay!” she cries before hugging her.

There’s a long clamor of discussion amongst the group when it hits them who’s missing.

“So then, Sean?” Joey asks.

“The dark birds made quick work of him,” Helena sighs.  
“It had to be done."

Suddenly she looks down and realizes that she’s still holding Artemis’ hand. Blushing she pulls away. Joey can’t help but try to hold back a giggle at just how cute she is. 

“But you got the medallion, right?” Lilly asks.

“I did,” Anna nods as she holds out her hand.

“Well, let’s go put it on the plaque,” Artemis suggests before turning to Helena.  
“Will I see you again?”

“I should hope so,” Helena replies in a low voice.  
“Lest my father find out. Stay safe, dear Artemis.”

“And to you, sweet Helena.”

Without another word, Helena runs off. Before turning to follow her, Ragnarok and Oschrome bow to Dodie. With a blush, she gives them a curtsey and then lightly pecks a hand on each of them. The two give affectionate growls.

“Ragnarok! Oschrome!” Helena calls.

Standing in alert, the two corn guards follow off.

* * *

As the group heads back inside, Ro still feels guilty about voting Anna in. She debates between confessing this and keeping it hidden as the medallion is placed on the plaque.

“So that’s our second one,” Lilly realizes.  
“Only six more to go.”

“But then that means six more of us have to die,” Dodie adds on somberly.

“Is there any way we can outsmart this?” Dan asks desperately.   
“Because I really don’t want to die in the bloody 1600s or whenever we are. What did the invitation call it?”

“The MidRen,” Anna replies.  
“I guess it’s kind of a hybrid time period."

“Whatever it’s called, is there a way we can outsmart it?” Dan sighs.

“I wouldn’t try it,” Joey answer gravely, remembering the last time they tried to outsmart villainy.   
“I think it’s best if we just follow what they say.”

“But then that means a lot of us are going to die,” Dan reminds him.

“Except for you,” Tessa grumbles.

Dan, hearing this, looks over to her in shock.

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t act so surprised,” Tessa scoffs as she stands up with her arms crossed.  
“I mean, you and Phil were the only ones whose puzzle didn’t have a death clause. That’s at least some reason to be suspicious.”

“I have absolutely nothing to do with this, and neither does Phil!” Dan blathers.

“That’s exactly what someone who wants to cover their tracks would say!” Tessa snaps.

“How do we know YOU aren’t behind all of this?” Dan spits back.  
“How do we know YOU’RE not the one trying to cover their tracks?”

Ro, meanwhile, kind of backs off from the group. She’s not a fan of conflict and/or drama. All of a sudden, she hears a crinkle beneath the heel of her shoe. She looks down to find a small scroll. Lifting her foot, she picks it up and unrolls it. As she reads, her eyes grow wider. This is bad news. 

“Guys,” she squeaks.  
“I think this might be important.”

Matt, seeing her face turn white, takes ahold of her in case she feels faint. Lilly, meanwhile, takes the scroll out of her hand and reads it aloud.

 

_Time Travelers,_

_Be warned._

_It is known that not all of you fight for good._

_There is one who is possessed by the evil who has lured you here._

_Watch your backs._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> The tensions run higher, the group comes face-to-face with a foe, and a disappearance is discovered.


	21. The Darkness Appears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Dark Prince makes his first appearance in this game, and one mistake sends a YouTuber away from the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COLLEGE IS STRESSFUL.  
> MOVING INTO AN APARTMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME IS STRESSFUL.  
> STRESS IS STRESSFUL.

Joey can’t believe what he’s hearing. Last time they found something like this, it was one of the helpers who was in league with the evil. But he’s seen Artemis and he’s not sure if she’s possessed. She certainly doesn’t look it. 

So then, if it’s not her, then…….who is it?

“Wait, so one of us……” Dodie begins.  
“Is possessed?”

“It’s not me because I almost died,” Anna admits raising her hands. 

“Huh,” Tessa remarks, turning towards Dan, her anger rising.

“Maybe that’s why you got that puzzle. Maybe the demon thing possessed you and helped you pick the one without a death clause!”

“How many times do I have to say it? Phil and I aren’t in on this AT ALL!”

“Is that what you’ll say to me when you’re stabbing my back?”

"Will you calm the hell down?"

"I will when you fess up, Brit Brat!"

“Guys!” Joey snaps, getting in between them.  
“Enough fighting! This is exactly what they want. They want us to turn against each other so that we won’t find the medallions.”

Tessa, with a scream, flops down on the couch beside Anna and pulls her dress hood over her.

“Are you okay?” Ro asks her.

“I’m just so damn frustrated that we’re stuck here!” she cries out, her voice muffled through her hood, as she tries to keep back her tears as Anna gently rubs her shoulder.  
“I just wanna go home. I miss my cat Luna, and all of this death is making me feel so.....infuriated! I hate this place!"

"All of us do," Matt tells her.   
"I miss Skip and Steph and Ollie and Chris. And Jason, kinda."

"I miss lil Cookie, and Molly," Ro adds.

"I miss my baby boy Scarbro and Humble and Brogan and Colleen," Lilly agrees.

"I miss Remus and Tori," Anna tells her.

"I miss Dexter and Bobby," Lauren pipes up.  
"And Scott and Ollie and setting Best Friend on fire and Tiffany and Lizzie."

The others stare at her as if she had announced she was the Dark Prince.

"What was that?" Dodie wonders concerned.

"Tiffany and Lizzie."

"No I meant----never mind."

"I miss Netflix," Dan sighs.

Now it's his turn to receive stares.

"What? That's the best I could come up with. Phil's with us, anyway."

"Aww, Dan," Phil gushes.  
"I'm touched."

"Okay," Artemis interrupts.  
"This is all very nice, but we don't have time to sit around and reminisce. We only have until sunrise."

"Who even set up this time constraint on this stupid curse?" Tessa blurts out, flipping off her hood.  
"Who's in charge here?"

All of a sudden, a cloud of black smoke bursts, startling the group, and from within the cloud emerges a figure dressed all in black carrying a black staff.

"I think that answers that question," Lauren remarks as he swaggers forward menacingly.

“Who the hell is that?” Dan asks.

“It’s the Dark Prince,” Artemis answers somberly.

Ro’s a bit terrified, but she tries to be brave as this looming figure approaches them. 

“So, you survived the first two, I see,” he hisses in a deep voice as he takes slow strides towards them.   
“Perhaps I underestimated you. No matter. You’ll all break sooner or later. I know it.”

The Dark Prince locks eyes with Joey and swaggers towards him. He grabs his collar and pulls him close before inhaling him. 

“I can smell power on you, pretty boy," he purrs.

Joey feels a little awkward. Is this Dark Prince trying to pull a move on him? Cuz he’s got a boyfriend.

“Once all of your friends have been eliminated, you will be all mine. You KNOW you want them gone."

Ro begins to feel very Mamma Bear over Joey. She pushes her way over to his side.

“Leave him alone!” she tells the Dark Prince.  
“Joey doesn’t want any of us to die. He doesn’t have an evil bone in his body! Now back off or else!”

Unfortunately she doesn’t quite meet his face and, in the dress she’s in, it’s difficult to stand on her tip-toes. But the Dark Prince is a step ahead and looks down on her. He gives a scoff of disapproval.

“Is THIS the best ‘fighter' you have? This……cute lil muffin?”

“Hey!” Lilly snaps.  
“That cute lil muffin’s a mother-effin’ fighter and strong AF!”

He gives a slow and malicious chuckle.

“Well then, if she’s such a fighter, then we’ll see how she does in training.”

All of a sudden, a trumpet sounds. Without a warning, the Dark Prince snatches Ro like a wig off a drag queen and disappears in a cloud of black smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:   
> Ro must work with a mystery figure to free herself from her confinement, and the others find a figure who may lead them to her.


	22. Chains of Pace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ro, held captive, attempts a challenge of trust and guidance while the others seek out a war prisoner whose story may lead them to her.

“Ro!” the group exclaims.

“Where’d she go?” Matt asks Artemis in a mixture of confusion and anger.

“And what the hell was that trumpet?” Anna asks.

“Who knows?” Artemis sighs.  
“The Dark Prince is incredibly unpredictable."

Lauren heads to the spot where the Dark Prince disappeared, as she’s spied a piece of paper.

 

_Want to know my story? Find me in the prison cell and I’ll tell you. What I speak of may help you find your friend._

“Guys, look,” she exclaims.  
“The Dark Prince left this.”

The group crowds around her and reads the note.

“‘What I tell you may help you find your friend.’ Does it mean Ro?” Dodie asks.   
“Or is there another YouTuber trapped here as well?”

“No clue,” Dan exclaims.   
“But we should probably go find out. Artemis, where is this prison cell?”

* * *

The last thing Ro remembers before she passes out is darkness. Now she awakens to find…….more darkness. 

She feels something around her eyes and tries to remove it, but hears the ringing of chains, and feels the weight of them. 

“What’s happening?” she asks to no one in particular.

“Psst! ‘Ey, girl!"

All of a sudden, she hears a voice call out to her.

“Hello?”

“‘Ey, girl!” it sounds like the voice of a little Cockney child. 

“Listen, I’m not s’pose t' be doin' this, but I can ‘elp yeh outta them chains. But yeh gotta trust me and follow m' directions.”

“What’s around my eyes?” she asks.

“Just a piece ‘a cloth, but it’s tied right tight. But listen. I can ‘elp yeh get the key t’ yeh chains. But we’ll 'ave t' do it like a sorta strat’gy game. I’ll tell yeh why in a minute.”

Ro’s not really sure if she can trust this stranger, but right now it seems she doesn’t really have much of a choice.

“Okay, what do I have to do?”

“It’s real simple-like. Just move in the direction I tell yeh t’ move as far as I tell yeh t’ move. If yeh do that, it’ll lead yeh t’ the key. But we gotta be careful. There are traps scattered 'round the place.”

“Okay, seems simple enough.”

“And one more thing. Try not to make too much noise with yeh chains. The guards might ‘ear if yeh do."

So that adds a tiny bit more complexity, but Ro’s gotta trust that this’ll work.

“Right. So just stand up first.”

It takes a bit of time, but she manages to situate herself onto her feet. 

“Okay, now what?”

“Take two steps in front of yeh.”

Carefully, so as to not jingle her chains too much, she steps forward one step, then another.

“Now what?”

“There’s a trap on yeh right. Go left ‘bout three steps.”

Ro sighs as she slides to the left. The voice keeps propelling her this way and that, messing up directions a few times. She nearly ends up in a trap or two.

_This is gonna be a long night._

* * *

Artemis leads the group to a small hut just outside of the castle grounds and opens the door.

“This way,” she directs them in a low voice.

Inside the hut is a large slab of wood with a brass handle. Artemis lifts it and reveals a stairway downwards.

“Oh God,” Dan mutters as he and Phil tiptoe down it with the others.   
“I just hope there are no spiders here.”

“Spiders may be the least of your worries,” Artemis informs him and she gallops down alongside.

Once they reach the bottom, they find two rows of prison cells, the walls also lined with lit torches. 

_I s’pose there weren’t any crash courses in fire safety,_ Dan thinks, trying to mentally laugh it off, but knowing that he’s only kidding himself.

“Who goes there?” a hoarse voice calls out at the end of the hall.

“Artemis,” she calls out.  
“I’ve brought guests who need your help, General Westley.”

She runs ahead and the group cautiously follows behind because they don’t know what this general dude is like. Once they reach the cell, they find a tired, old man in a militia uniform.

“Artemis,” he gasps.  
“It has been a while. What can I do for you?”

“We need to find our friend, Rosanna,” Joey blurts out.

He explains to the General about the Dark Prince, about how Ro tried to stand up for Joey, about how that got her whisked away to God-knows-where, ending with what the Dark Prince said before she disappeared.

“I see,” the General responds slowly.  
“And you received the note saying I shall tell you my story to find your friend, correct?”

“Yes,” Dodie replies.

His hand trembles as he goes to puzzle this.

“Very well,” he croaks hoarsely.

 

_I was a young lad in the times of old; the days before the Dark Prince was even conceived. Peace was vibrant and abundant, yet everyday, I felt a pit in my stomach, telling me that danger was yet to come._

_Not but when I was six decade and seven, the kingdom fell under siege to him. He forced us to give up our possessions. But there was one thing I refused to give up; the Westley Medallion, passed down from father to eldest son of the bloodline. I hid it away where no one would think to find it._

The general stares off into space for a few moments. 

“And?” Dan snaps.

“That’s it,” Artemis sighs.

“So how does that help us find Ro?” Matt huffs.

“There is,” the General pipes up.  
“more. The medallion lies with the one called Apollo. Six decades and seven from the door, up and then right. That is all.”

The group stares at him in disbelief.

“That’s it?” Lilly stammers.  
“Qu’est-ce que what now?”

“That’s barely anything to go off of!” Tessa shrieks in frustration.

“No, wait!” Matt gasps.  
“I think I know what he means.”

With that, he rushes up the stairs and the others follow suit, confused as hell.

* * *

Ro, meanwhile, with help from the stranger, has nearly successfully made her way to the other side with the key.

“Yeh almost there!” 

Suddenly, she hears a rattle from below her and soon, footsteps headed her way.

_Oh crap._

“What’s going on in here?” a sharp voice barks harshly.

Before Ro can respond, there’s a whack and a slash and a thud. She’s silent for a few moments, waiting to see if the coast is clear.

“I’m still ‘ere,” the voice whispers.  
“Just keep goin' straight.”

Finally Ro makes it across and holds out the key. She feels a small hand snatch it from her before the click of chains falling off. 

“I’ll need yeh t’ bend a bit so’s I can take off yeh blinds,” the voice urges her.

Squatting down, she feels two small hands in her hair. She shuts her eyes as light floods into the tent. After blinking a few times to adjust, she sees a scrawny little boy with shoulder length blonde hair, a dark grey shirt, stripped trousers, bare feet, and a bandana round his head.

“Name’s Apollo,” he introduces.

“Rosanna,” she returns.  
“Thank you so much.”

Her eye catches the sight of a fallen guard.

“Is he….?"

“Don’t mind ‘im. He’s restin’,” Apollo assures her quickly.  
“Now if yeh friends found m’ note, they should be ‘ere soon.”

* * *

Matt, with the energy of a thousand men, dashes full force, seeming to keep track of something as he does.

“Hey, Matt,” Tessa huffs.  
“Slow the hell down. Not all of us are cheetahs in human form.”

All of a sudden, he slides to a halt before turning to the right.

“Where’s he going now?” Dan groans, near collapsing as the group passes a graveyard full of wicker crosses.  
“If I die from all of this, he’s gonna pay for my bloody funeral.”

As he turns to the right, he sees a scarlet and black tent. 

“Six decades and seven, up and to the right,” he gasps.  
“In other words, sixty paces up and seven paces right.”

He slides to a halt near the tent.

“Ro?” he calls out.  
“Ro! Where are you?”

* * *

“Did you hear that?” Ro gasps as she hears her name being called. 

Before Apollo can answer, she dashes out of the tent and throws herself into Matt’s arms.

“Ro!” Joey and the others exclaim.  
“Oh my God! We were so worried.”

“What happened?” Lilly urges her.

“I was blindfolded and chained, but Apollo,” she replies gesturing to the small boy.  
“Guided me to the front of the tent.”

“Wait,” Anna exclaims.  
“Did you say Apollo?”

Ro nods and the second she does, Anna dashes to him.

“Where’s the medallion?” she snaps, nearly shaking him.  
“Where the hell is the medallion?”

“Calm down!” he squeaks.  
“I can give it to yeh, it’s——"

All of a sudden, he notices Tessa in her witch costume and gasps.

“Witch! A witch! Yeh with the Dark Prince! I knew it. Guards! Guards!!”

“Apollo! Stop!” Artemis exclaims as she steps up to the front of the group.  
“We’re not with him. We need the medallion to stop him.”

“Hands in the air!” a voice barks.

Automatically, the entire group puts their hands up in the air. Surrounding them, with stern looks on their faces ready to kill, are just over two dozen guardsmen with razor-sharp swords.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> With the group surrounded by soldiers, can they sway their way out of death just this once?


	23. But Be the Serpent Under't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is given a chance to retrieve the third medallion, but it comes at the risk of being reaped for elimination.

The group backs into a circle with their hands in the air. Ro tries to keep calm, but she stands near Matt for extra reassurance. 

“Who in God’s name are you?” one of the guards rasps.

“We’re friends of Artemis,” Joey explains quickly.  
“We want to stop the Dark Prince, but we need the medallions to do it.”

“Liar!” Apollo barks, pointing at Joey.  
“I recognize yeh. The Dark Prince sees yeh favorably. Yeh were 'is puppet. ‘Ow do I know yeh can be trusted?”

“Look, I don’t know what the bloody hell is going on, but I really just wanna go home,” Dan groans.   
“So can you PLEASE just give us that medallion?”

“No! Yeh have a witch in yeh team and I don’t trust witches!”

_I take it he wouldn’t be a Harry Potter fan in 2018 then,_ Tessa thinks.

“I’m NOT a witch,” she exclaims.  
“I’m just dressed like one!”

“Likely story,” one of the guards huffs.  
“Take them to the execution chamber!”

The guards begin to approach them and everyone’s heart beat is that of a hummingbird’s.

_Is this it?_ Joey fears.  
_Are we all gonna die, right here, right now?_

“Wait!” Lilly exclaims.

She’s realized that people generally respond well if you offer them something in return. She’s gotta try to barter with them.

“Hold up! Wait just a second. There’s gotta be a way we can settle this so that we don’t all die. Maybe we can make a trade."

The guards lower their swords and the head general steps forward.

“And what exactly are you offering?” 

“Well, is there anything you need?” she wonders.

The guards discuss this under their breaths and the guests hold theirs. Maybe Lilly’s strategy will work. Even if it doesn’t, it certainly prolongs their lives, even if only for a few more moments.

Finally they look back up at the guests.

“We do have one thing,” the head guard admits.  
“You know the graveyard?”

“I do,” Artemis pipes up.

“I saw it on my way here,” Dodie adds.

“Good,” the guard huffs.  
“Inside the graveyard are fourteen scrolls. They have either a sin or a virtue on them. We need to match them together for our archives. Find one, then bring it back here and give it to Apollo before you go back to get another. The ones who collect the least scrolls will be put up for vote in the final challenge. If your scrolls consecutively match up with each other, sin to virtue, you’re safe from the block.  
“I do also want to let you know that there are snakes that guard the graveyard. Not venomous, but if you get bit by one, you automatically go into the final challenge, no vote. If someone’s bitten, the game’s over."

The guards clear the way towards the graveyard and the guests look around, confused.

“Go!” the head guard barks.

Immediately there’s a mad scramble towards the graveyard. The gates are propped open. The ground looks pretty clear, so the group charges inside, but the second they do….

_Hiss!_

“Oh shit,” Dan exclaims.

Oh shit is right. Along the graveyard are about thirty black snakes, some on the fence, some on the ground, and some by scrolls. Dan sees one scroll by a smaller snake and snatches it up. Running out of the graveyard, he unrolls it before realizing that it’s too difficult for him to run, so he slows to a jog and reads the scroll.

**_“Sloth.”_ **

So that’s a sin. All he needs to do, after he gets back to the graveyard, is find its opposite. He tries to think of all of the sins and virtues. 

_Okay, let’s see, the opposite of sloth is……_

_Is……._

_Is……._

He sighs as he hands the boy his scroll. Running is exhausting.

_I’ll figure it out later._

All he can do is go back, pick up another, and hope it matches with sloth.

* * *

Matt, meanwhile, has partnered up with Ro, helping her find one while he fends off snakes and vice-versa.

“I got one!” she calls.

“What’s it say?” he asks.

**_“Kindness.”_ **

_Fitting that Ro would find that,_ Matt chuckles.

As she has his back, fending off any snakes that come their way, he finally manages to pick up a scroll.

_“ **Charity** ,” _he reads.  
“Okay, let’s go!” 

On his way out, Matt notices that Phil is struggling with finding a scroll. 

“Phil!” he exclaims.  
“You okay? You look like you’re kinda stuck. You wanna take mine?”

He holds out his scroll.

“Thanks, but I’m fine,” Phil declines politely.

“You sure?”

“I haven’t been looking for too long anyway. Any idea of where I might find one?”

Matt wracks his brain.

“I think I saw a scroll a few rows over by a wicker cross. Maybe it’s still there.”

All of a sudden, they hear a hiss. Yelling in fright, Matt runs off with Ro while Phil looks by the wicker cross and, sure enough, it’s still there. Snatching it up, he unrolls it as he dashes out of the graveyard. 

**_“Diligence.”_ **

_More like Philigence, huh?_

He hands the scroll to Apollo before hurrying back around.

* * *

Anna’s been trying to fend off snakes for the past three minutes.

“Damn it!” she exclaims.  
“Go away! I’m not your midnight snack."

These little bitches are persistent and keep at her. Groaning she runs off before stumbling across a scroll guarded by a snake. Carefully, but quickly, she reaches over it.

“Please don’t bite me. Please don’t bite me,” she begs.

Her hand touches the scroll and the second she clasps it, she’s off. Unrolling it, she finds the word 

**_“Wrath.”_ **

All of a sudden, she hears a sharp hiss below her feet and nearly screams before taking off.

“Not today, Satan!” she shrieks as she zips past the fence. 

* * *

About a quarter of an hour passes. Lilly’s already found one scroll, 

**_“Pride.”_ **

She’s now on the search for her second, keeping a hawk’s eye out for those twisty little creatures. She nears a grave marked with a wicker cross and snatches up the scroll. Unrolling it, she finds the word  _ **“Gluttony”**_ on it. All of a sudden, she feels a sharp pain on her ankle. Biting down on her lips, she tries not to scream, afraid of what it might be. Tilting down, she finds that, as she feared, one of the snakes has rammed their fangs into the ankle of her right boot and her heart drops. 

_I’m going into a challenge again._

To everyone else’s surprise, the snakes retract and the scrolls left in the graveyard disappear, including the one in Lilly’s hand.

“What the hell just happened?” Lauren exclaims in shock.  
“The snakes are gone!”

“I fail to see how that’s a problem,” Dan remarks.

“That means the game’s over,” Dodie gasps.   
“I think one of us got bitten.”

“Okay, everyone meet at the gates,” Joey calls.

“We’ll find out which one of us it is."

Everyone convenes at the front, including Lilly who’s reluctant to show any trace of evidence that SHE was the bite victim. She tries to walk as normal, but the pain’s still there and it’s still strong. 

_Oh God, please please PLEASE don’t let anyone notice._

But her prayers seem to go unanswered, or just straight-up weren’t meant to be answered this time. Because Tessa Netting, though claiming she’s not magic, is the first to point out that something’s up the second Lilly arrives.

“Lilly, what’s up with your foot?” she wonders, with some feigned innocence.

“Nothing,” Lilly lies, trying to hide her obvious winces of pain. 

“Your face says otherwise,” Tessa scoffs.  
“It would really bite if something happened to you.”

_Girl, I swear, if you give it away….._

“Did you get bitten?” Joey asks concerned.

“What?” Lilly scoffs.  
“Me? No! Of course not.”

Yeah, it’s a bad lie, but if by some miracle it works, then Lilly’s NOT complaining. Though by the looks of the group’s faces, the opposite seems to be the case. 

“Look, if you got bitten, it’s better if you just fess up,” Anna snaps furiously.  
“None of us are eager about this fact, but I wanna go home! So if you got bit, then tell us the truth because the sooner we can get this over with, the better!”

“Whoa,” Matt exclaims in shock.

Anna’s normally a very calm person, but this night so far has been taking a toll on her and now her fuse is the shortest it’s ever been in her life. She’s seen someone die and she beat out someone in the second challenge, sending THEM to their death. She never planned to fight for her life, especially at a party of all damn places! And now all she wants is one second without the fear of death hanging over her head.

“I swear, I didn’t get bitten!” Lilly snaps back.

She is NOT ready to admit defeat. If she has to go back into another challenge, she feels like she’ll kill someone. 

“Would you just swallow your pride already?” Anna spits.  
“We only have until sunrise to get this all done. If we just stand here arguing, John and Sean would’ve die for nothing! Is that what you want?"

“There’s something on her boot,” Ro points out.

She’s not ready for Lilly to go back into a challenge either, but Anna’s right. If the group can’t stop these deaths, the least they ca do is make sure that no one dies in vain. And her being the closest to the ground, she’s managed to notice the bite marks.

“I think they’re bite marks.”

“I knew it,” Anna gloats matter-of-factly.

Lilly feels anger, fear, and sadness well up inside of her. She just thought that this whole “going-into-a-challenge-where-only-one-will-survive” ish was just a prank. But when she was told that she had to shoot John—kill John—it hit her that this is no joke. 

“I think it’s time to go cast the votes,” Artemis announces, breaking the tension.  
“If you all would follow me please.”

As they walk back to the castle, Lilly and Anna keep giving each murderous glares. If looks could kill, no one’s sure which of them would be dead first. Lilly, at the same time, is trying to suppress her stew of emotions. If she broke her facade, she’d look weak, making her seem like an easy target to take out. And while she’s normally all for expressing one’s emotions, this is life or death. She needs to focus on gathering her confidence. 

Anna’s poker face is a bit more effective, only this one is hiding frustration. She doesn’t understand why Lilly couldn’t just admit that she lost. She feels like Lilly’s becoming a nemesis, a nasty target, and a major roadblock to not just Anna’s, but the whole group’s chances of survival. And now there’s a chance she might be on the block with her. But, hey, if that’s the case, and winning the challenge is what it’s gonna take to get rid of such a prideful player, Anna’s more than happy to oblige. 


	24. A Testament to Her Nature

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group's suspicions grow deeper when animosity runs rampant between Anna and Lilly.

They return to the parlor, drained by the exercise and emotion. They all flop down on the couches. 

“Do we need time to discuss?” Artemis wonders.

The group turns to each other.

“Guys, what do you think?” Joey asks.

“I mean,” Tessa sighs, shrugging.  
“We already have one person going in, so maybe not as much.”

“I’d still like a little, though,” Phil replies.

"I agree," Ro sighs.

A murmur of agreement ripples through the rest of the group. The night is still young, but everyone’s already worn down to some degree so there’s not much of a discussion when they all split up. 

Dodie and Lilly pair up.

Anna and Tessa break off to a corner. 

Dan and Phil decide they’re gonna spit between the two respective groups, and see what the consensus is. And Ro groups with Joey, Lauren, and Matt.

* * *

“I really think Anna’s got to go,” Lilly whispers as Dan approaches her and Dodie.  
“I’ve got such a bad feeling about her. I feel like she’s gonna do whatever it takes to get rid of me.”

“But she’s been helpful,” Dodie counters.

“Helpful?” Lilly exclaims.  
“She’s only done one challenge.”

“That’s the same case with you,” Dan adds.

_No one asked you, Brit Brat,_ Lilly huffs in her head.

Dodie’s starting to feel a bit put off by Lilly’s aggression towards Anna. She was called out for being bitten by a snake. So what? Lilly’s strong enough that she’d have a good chance at survival. Dan doesn’t really care either way. All he wants is to get the hell out.

* * *

On the other side of the room, Anna and Tessa discuss their preferences.

“Lilly’s got to go,” Anna whispers sharply.  
“She’s only gonna slow us down if she keeps up this kind of behavior.”

Anna’s not a fan of people being prideful to a point where they slow down progress. If they keep Lilly around, they risk lagging behind; in turn, they risk being stuck in this place forever. She doesn’t want to stay here. There’s no  _Harry Potter_ in the MidRen!

“I get it, I get that people shouldn’t be that prideful,” Tessa assures her.  
“But I think you may be jumping the gun here. Lilly’s been a strong player.”

As much as Tessa wants to side with her best friend, the fact of the matter is that Lilly is a strong force in the group. But both her and Anna have each done a challenge. If one or the other had done another, that’d help her make a decision, but all she has aside from those two challenges and their behavior outside of them is her gut.

Phil doesn’t like taking sides. He prefers to be more of a mediator or a middle ground, so he’s not sure who’s right.

“If she doesn’t have the right attitude, what’s it worth to be a ‘strong’ player?” Anna snaps.  
“We need people who are gonna help us move forward more quickly.”

* * *

A few minutes later and Artemis begins putting the cards back in their piles.

“Guys,” Joey exclaims.  
“I think we’re running out of time. Let’s just get this over with.”

With heavy hearts, they all slump down on the couch.

“As you all know, Lilly has been automatically placed in elimination, so we will be drawing for the second spot only. Does anyone wish to go first?” Artemis asks.

Unsurprisingly, no one is willing to be the first to jump at the chance to send one of them to their impending demise.

“Very well,” she sighs.  
“Then I’ll draw for order."

Picking up one of each card, she shuffles them and then picks one out.

“Lauren,” she reads before continuing with the next card.  
“Tessa.”

And the next ones.

“Dodie.”

“Joey.”

“Rosanna.”

“Dan.”

“Anna.”

“Phil.”

“Matthew.”

“Lilly.”

The tension from their stomachs fades only slightly. Even though one of them is already selected to be the first in elimination, there’s still a second spot. Lauren walks up to the table and picks a random card. Now that John’s out of the way, it doesn’t really matter to her who goes in. She’s lost most of her hope by this point.

Tessa has a feeling that she’s been playing a dangerous game. She was the one who prompted Lilly to get called out, after all. She hands Artemis a card before going over to a desk nearby. As Dodie goes up to vote, Tessa gives a squeak of pain. She looks down at what she found earlier; it's a testament to her perceptive nature, but it comes with a cost. She picks up something nearby and begins her work; she's been instructed to act quickly on the matter, particularly if someone decides to vote HER in. She squeezes and lets the "ink" run.

Meanwhile, Dodie is nearly panicking, but also trying to analyze the situation. What kind of challenge was it going to be? Would it test speed? Smarts? Agility? Strength? She figures that it is a soldier’s grounds, so likely speed and strength. But who would have a chance against Lilly?

Then she remembers someone telling her about Rosanna’s workout routine. The girl’s apparently really strong and pretty fast. But she's too sweet. She doesn't want to send Ro to her death, but who else is a viable option?

_I’m sorry._

She hands in an Alchemist card before returning to her seat.

Anna’s got no idea who to send in. She wants Lilly gone, but who on earth has that chance? If it's on soldier's grounds, the test is likely to be physical, and Anna's shit at those. On a whim, after what seems like hours of thinking, she hands in a Savant card.

Finally Lilly rushes up there. Without thinking, she hands Artemis a Falconer card. She feels so wrong doing this, but girl’s gotta survive, and Anna's standing in the way of the group.

“I will now shuffle, and draw one,” Artemis informs them after Lilly returns to her seat. By this point, Tessa’s also returned. Rosanna, sitting near her, notices that one of her index fingers is stained red. Hearts race as Artemis pulls a card out before turning it around.

“Tessa,” she announces.

Tessa looks down at her hands and sighs. Everyone is shocked, but no one moreso than Anna. She turns to Lilly and glares at her.

“I swear it wasn’t mine!” she retaliates.

“Sure,” Anna scoffs venomously.  
“Sure it wasn’t."

“If you two would follow me,” Artemis tells them.  
“Everyone else can stay.”

Tessa stands back up, but not before grabbing something and going over to Anna who envelops her in a hug.

“Don’t worry,” Tessa assures her.  
“It’s gonna be okay.”

“I don’t want you to die,” Anna squeaks.

“I know. I know."

As Artemis and Lilly exit the parlor, Tessa grabs Anna’s hands and places something in her hands. 

“What’s that?” Anna whispers.

“I found it in the graveyard. Don’t open it until after the medallion is back safely.”

Anna nods. With tears in both of their eyes, Tessa gives Anna’s hands a loving squeeze.

“You’re strong and intelligent,” she tells Anna.  
“If I don’t make it back—“

“—I’ll escape for both of us,” she finishes.  
“I promise.”

After a second embrace with Anna and the others, Tessa and Lilly follow Artemis out of the parlor. Once they’ve left, Anna looks down at what’s in her hands; a tiny bottle with some red inside. But there’s something about the bottle that piques her intrigue. It looks like a certain type of bottle, a small potion bottle.

 


	26. Espionage By The Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Lilly, England versus Scotland, battle it out to be the first to get the other country's treasure. Not surprisingly, only one of them will be making it out alive.

Artemis leads Lilly and Tessa back to the soldier’s campgrounds. It feels like a much further walk than they remember, but that could be a symptom of the fact that one of them is going to be killed soon. The two of them REALLY hope it's not physical. Their feet are start to throb from all of the running.

“You brought the witch back?” Apollo exclaims angrily.  
“She’s only gonna cause us trouble!”

“It was randomly selected,” Artemis sighs.  
"And she's not a real witch."

"That's what she's makin' you say. 'Er witchy magic's controllin' you!"

Tessa can tell that Artemis is doing all that she can to keep herself from slapping Apollo.

The Head Guard approaches Tessa and hands her a scroll. Unravelling it, Lilly looks over her shoulder as Tessa reads it aloud.

_It’s time for espionage. England and Scotland are at war with one another and have sent you two as spies to retrieve a treasure from the enemy. First you must pick which side of the war you’re on and start at the far end away from your tent. When the challenge begins, you must run past your obstacle course and find what you need to infiltrate the enemy’s camp. The items you will need are a hat, a vest, a pair of gloves, a sword, and finally a shield. Once you grab an item from your tent, you must run back to the other side and place it on the crate marked with your country’s flag. You may only retrieve one item at a time. When all five items are collected, you must put them on and run into the enemy camp to grab a coin. Once you present this coin to Apollo, the challenge will be over._

_The first spy to collect all five items AND present their coin to Apollo will be given the medallion and allowed to continue on. However the spy who was not quick enough will be chained to cinder blocks and pushed into the ocean to drown. If after half an hour neither one has retrieved their coin, both will be sent to the bottom of the sea._

They suddenly hear the sound of water. Tessa and Lilly look up and see a giant sea. They gulp, a shiver rushing through each of them. Neither of them are fond of dying, but drowning seems like a particularly cruel way go, especially with cinder blocks.

"It'd be a pretty fittin' way for you t' go," Apollo scoffs at Tessa.  
"It'll prove if you're a witch or not."

_For the thousandth time, I'm NOT a witch. If I was, you'd likely have been turned into a toad by now._  


“So?” the Head Guard interrupts.  
“Which side?”

“I’ll take England,” Tessa answers.

Lilly shrugs.

“I’m fine with Scotland.”

Two more guards lead them to opposite sides. Tessa with a cloth flag of England, Lilly with a cloth flag of Scotland. 

“Get to the far end,” the Head Guard ordered.

Tessa and Lilly back up.

“And…..begin.”

A sandtimer is flipped and Tessa and Lilly are off. On Tessa’s obstacle course, there’s a lot of jumping over crates as well as dodging them, not to mention how often she has to go under so many things as well. And for Tessa, as she’s dressed as a witch in a dress with a rather large skirt, this doesn’t bode well for her. 

_ How the hell did women do ANYTHING back in that era with these huge bustles? _

She eventually makes it to the other side, and dashes into the tent. The first thing she sees is the vest. Snatching it up, she turns around and heads back for the other side. 

* * *

Lilly, on the other hand, finds her obstacle course to be one where she has to cross each crate and avoid, just as she feared, more snakes.

“Are you serious?” she grumbles.

_ Why did it have to be snakes?  _

As if getting bit by one wasn't bad enough, now she's gotta make her way to the other side with them as obstacles. 

_ Honestly, just kill me. Like, literally just take a sword and stab me right now.  _

Glancing to her left, she finds that Tessa’s already returning with her first piece. Her stomach jumping, Lilly books it towards the tent, refusing to give up as she remembers that her damn life is at stake. Instead of taking from the front, though, she decides to head for the back and work her way up; she'd get the further supplies out of the way first and then it'll be easy to collect the objects near the front. Sure enough, the shield and sword are back there, the pair of gloves and hat on the side, and the vest in the very front. Could she do it?

_There’s no rule against it, at least according to the scroll._

Taking each object one at a time, she brings them around to the front where she can easily grab them. Once all five objects are in place, she takes the shield and dashes over the crates and snakes, soon making it to the other side. As she sets her foot down, one of the snakes launches at her heels and she nearly has a heart attack.

"Not today, Satan Stick!" she exclaims.  
"Not today!"

Quickly, she sets her shield down on the crate. 

_Sword’s next,_ she thinks as she dashes back across.

* * *

Tessa’s now on her third object. She doesn’t even bother checking in on Lilly; if she does that, it’s only gonna hinder her own progress. But her progress seems to be hindered regardless, as the tent isn’t well-lit and the gloves are difficult to find. 

“Are these gloves invisible? Come on!” she grumbles as she fumbles about in the dark searching for them.   
"My life is at stake!"

It's times like this that Tessa REALLY wishes she went to Hogwarts. Okay, she does that already, but this is one of the times where she REALLY wishes she could be a real witch. Having spells would be useful for finding all of this stuff in a tent with almost no light.

She’s on the verge of giving up when she feels a bit of rough fabric. Picking it up and taking it out into the light, she finds that it’s the gloves!  Without hesitation, she rushes back to the other side and places it on the crate with her other two items. All that’s left is the sword and shield, and she's starting to feel more optimistic about her odds.

 _Don’t worry, Anna,_ she thinks eagerly.  
_I’m gonna make it out. And then we’ll escape this hellhole together. That’s a promise!_

* * *

Soon enough, all Lilly needs is to grab the hat. She can see it as she climbs over her crates and without even thinking, she reaches for it and grabs it tightly before darting back around and to her crate. 

_What’s next? I’ve gotta…..I’ve gotta put them on and then…….the coin!_

Throwing on her armor, and grabbing her defense, Lilly dashes from Scotland and into England’s tent. She hides behind one of the bookshelves inside the tent, thankfully escaping Tessa's field of vision. One thing back there in particular catches her eye. Sticking out of a book is a piece of paper. Pulling it out, she reads;

COMBINATION TO ENGLISH COIN SAFE:

Lust, Fraud, Violence, Treason

_What the F does that mean?_

It has to be a reference to something medieval, right? And there has to be a commonality to those four words, right?

_Lust, Fraud, Violence, Treason. Aren’t those all sins? I’m thinking it’s something to do with Christianity. Sins of Christianity._

She turns around and finds a small box with a set of four dials on top; each one has, not words, but a single digit number. 

_Qu’est-ce que what now?  
_

This is gonna take a while.

* * *

Tessa, meanwhile, has collected her fifth and final item, but as she does, she hears someone muttering to themselves. Figuring it’s Lilly, Tessa dashes back to her crate and throws on what she has before dashing over to the other side. Inside of the tent, she runs behind a book shelf to find a piece of scroll that reads

COMBINATION TO SCOTTISH COIN SAFE:

Limbo, Greed, Heresy, Anger

_Okay, so I’m guessing I just have to plug in those words? Piece of cake!_

Turning around she finds her coin box, but also finds that this isn’t a word combination; she has to input numbers. 

“Are you kidding me?” she groans.  
“Okay, what could those words be in connection with numbers?”

She has a thought and sneaks back over to her camp and peeks inside of the tent where she hears Lilly muttering.

“Lust? Wait, is this some sort of reference to……Dante—? Wait! I got it!”

_Dante? Dante’s Inferno!_ Tessa thinks.

Quick as a flash, she rushes back over to Lilly's camp.

“Okay,” she huffs.  
“Let’s see. Limbo is the first circle, so 1. Then it’s….Lust, then Gluttony, Greed; that’s 4. Heresy is 6 and anger…….5. 1465!”

* * *

Lilly’s also plugged in her numbers. 2879. Inside is a gold coin. Snatching it up, she rushes towards Apollo with Tessa at her heels. It's only a matter of speed at this point, and the pressure is on. Tessa claws at Lilly, her sense of self-preservation kicking in, but so has Lilly's, and unfortunately, it doesn't work for her.

“I’m sorry, Tessa,” she tells her as she hands the coin to Apollo, causing Tessa to skid to a halt.  
“I really am.”

Now it’s Tessa’s turn to feel her heart sink. The color drains from her face as Apollo hands Lilly a medallion; THE medallion. The one that was supposed to save her life, but now dooms her to die.

_This is it,_ she thinks as tears come to her eyes.  
_I’m done for._

“Lilly, why?” she squeaks. as a guard grabs her arms and holds them behind her back, pushing her ahead while two other guards prepare the cinder blocks and cuffs by the edge of the dock.

“I’m sorry,” Lilly exclaims regretfully.

“Please, you can’t do this!” Tessa cries as the guard pushes her closer to the sea. 

Once she’s close to the other two, they hold down her legs, figuring she might try to run away.

“No, stop! Please!” she pleads, tears rolling down her face.

“I’m sorry, Tessa. I really am!” Lilly gasps as her throat feels as if it’s closing up.

“You can’t do this!” she screams while trying to choke back tears.  
“Lilly, help me please!”

Lilly tries to run to help, thinking maybe just one of them can be saved from death, but another guard grabs ahold of her. She struggles against him, but he has a good hold on her. 

As Tessa’s fate closes in, she feels her heart both drop into her stomach AND launch itself into her throat. She’s about to be drowned, and in spite of her role, she’s sure as hell NOT gonna be able to use magic to fly out. But Anna……she needs to make sure Anna at least gets out okay.

“Lilly!” Tessa calls, realizing they’ve almost finished shackling her ankles in.  
“Get Anna out alive. Please!”

Lilly’s not sure if she can guarantee it; this feels like such a random draw. Some of the feuds are apparent, her and Anna definitely have an open wound, but others may be hidden. Even so, Tessa's about to be drowned; the least Lilly can do is honor her a last request as best as possible.

“I’ll do my best,” she calls out as the two guards begin to push her cinder blocks closer to the edge of the dock.   
“I promise!”

Tessa’s heart is palpitating as she closes in on the dock’s edge. She tries to drown out the loud rumbling of the cinder bricks being pushed closer and closer. 

_Just make it quick, please._

Then suddenly, a violent push propels her forwards, causing her to scream bloody murder, before a loud splash is heard. 

Under the water. she struggles to break free as the blocks pull her to the bottom of the ocean, but those guards shackled her tight. As she gasps for air, water begins to fill her lungs and the pressure begins to push against her, memories flash before her eyes. Luna, JK Rowling, Remus, Sophie, Anna.

_Maybe I’ll see them again someday. After all to a well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure._

With a smile, she closes her eyes as a dark curtain swallows her whole. 

* * *

Lilly is petrified by what she just witnessed. Sure, maybe she didn’t have to kill her herself like she had to kill John, but that was the first death she’s witnessed where the victim screamed, and God damn, was it an ear-piercing scream.

She looks down at the medallion Apollo gave her. A sword and shield are engraved on it. The symbol makes her reflect on Tessa’s last words.

_Get Anna out alive. Please!_

By now it’s no secret to the group that Lilly and Anna aren’t particularly fond of each other. But even with that, Lilly promised Tessa that she would do her best. She can’t take it back now. 

Lilly feels a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she glances to see a somber-looking Artemis.

“I think we should go,” she sighs.

Nodding, Lilly takes a final look over at the sea. She bows her head for a few moments before following Artemis away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Three down and five to go. And how will Anna react upon finding out that her best friend is gone for good?

**Author's Note:**

> Next Chapter:  
> Lauren roasts her best friend, Dodie is suspicious, Sean's mom is savage, and Dan dreads social interaction.


End file.
